
Rook_J:(aX- 



X- 



W- Y- '•US. Lit 



^^^G^^^ 



^ 



FROM THE 



Hudson 



TO TllK 



St. Johns 



C? V) , 







1 






A 


• f^5 






THENEWYORK 

PUBLIC UBRARY 






147861 








■".(^^TOR, LENOX ArND 

tTlden foundations. 
1900. 












^OHANGt 




PiiblislKM 


[ t(>]' Private J)istriljtitiuii. 




In ftXQL 








M.T. FuJi. i-ifc. 





Press of the Newark Daily Advertiser. 



TO 



MRS. A. L. DENNIS 



WHOSE (iENTLE MINISTRATION;; AND CONSTANT SOLICITUDE, AS THE HKAD OF IIEI 



T R A \^ K LING II U S K 1 1 () L D, 



'\[A1)K THK 



K X C TJ n S I O X T O F L O H I 1) A , 



AN E\'ENT OF UNBUOKEN UAIOIONY AND UNALLOYED ENJOYMENT, 

THE FOLLOWING KECORD, WIUTTEN CHIEFLY DUUING 

THE .rOUKNEY, IS, BY' UNANIMOUS REQUEST 

OF THE I'ARTY, 



MOST RKSPKCTFULLY DEDICATED. 






Js^^ j^-) 












]Mew York to ¥fy\^HijMqToj^. 



V^lFcV^HURSDAY, B'ebmary 26th, 1874, at 9 a.m., there 
D^c^r^ stood upon the rails of the Pennsjdvania Railroad 
i>-^:=^^ at Jersey City, a miniature dwelling-house, capable 
of" accommodating a family of twenty-three, ready to receive 
its occupants and to roll away from the Fludson to the St. 
Johns — from the wintry blasts of the north, to the Orange 
groves of Florida. Since this is to be an attempt to record 
the doings of the household for the next thirty days, it is well 
to begin with some description of the house. Let us look 
through it before its inmates take possession, while it is in the 
sole charge of Charles W. Rowan, major-domo, and Benjamin 
Harris, cook and bottle washer. 

It is of the familiar maroon color, and its name is "Pennsyl- 
vania." It consists of four rooms and a piazza. A kitchen, 
dining room, parlor, and ladies' dressing room, with pantries, 
closets, refrigerator, cooking range, hot and cold water, and all 



the appliances of convenience and comfort whicli can be com- 
pressed into the space of a ]ar2;e I'ailway car. The dining room 
can be converted into sleeping apartments. The piazza or 
balcony in the rear is large enongh for ten seats. There are 
electric call-bells from parlor and dining room to the kitchen. 
And the table can be spread with India China and the choicest 
linen. The wheels are adjustable to any width of track, so that 
it can move over an}^ railroad in tlie country. It is in fact the 
car of Col. Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and 
has been placed at the disposal of Mr. Alfred L. Dennis, 
President of the New Jersey Railroad, for an excursion to 
Florida and back, witli some friends whom he has invited 
to join himself and Mrs. Dennis in running away from the March 
winds. It was to leave with the morning train to Washington. 

P>efore it started seven of the f\imily had taken possession of 
their temporary home. They were Mr. and Mrs. William D. 
Bishop of Bridgeport, Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Baylis of 
Brooklyn, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Sloan of New York, and Mr, 
Moses Taylor, also of New York. 

No stirring incidents of travel are to be recorded in the 
journey across the Newark meadows. At Newark the house- 
hold was largely increased. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Dennis, 
Mr. and Mrs. Nehemiah Perry, Mr. and Mrs. Martin R. Dennis, 
Mrs. Daniel Dodd, Mr. and Mrs. A. Q. Keasbey, Mr. Thomas 
T. Kinney, Mr. Samuel S. Dennis, and Mr. Alfred L. Dennis, 
Jr., made up the Jersey part of the family, and so with nineteen 



NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 



inmates, besides some friends not yet ready for their leave- 
takings, the little Hotel rolled away Southward. The furious 
snow storm of the preceding day had caused forebodings of 
delay, and all were ready to enjoy the bright morning and the 
successful departure. At Philadelphia the household was made 
complete by the addition of Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Bacon and 
daughters. Miss Helen and Miss Anne Bacon. And now the 
house was full and merry, and the trip was fairly begun. The 
day was devoted to establishing the proper relations of intimacy 
among the various members of the family, to discussing plans 
of travel, and settling down into regular habits of locomotion. 

The marked feature of the day was the first dinner. The 
household was too numerous for the table, and gallantry 
prompted the gentlemen to insist that the ladies should dine 
first, assisted by two gentlemen. But the experiment was 
never repeated. The two gentlemen who devoted themselves 
to the service of the ladies expected to be Avelcomed to the 
table of the gentlemen after the cloth was removed, to join them 
in discussing the quality of the champagne provided for the 
trip. But they were barred out. In vain they implored admis- 
sion to that festive board. They stood without the closed door, 
and heard the " sounds of revelry," and exhausted all their ar- 
guments and entreaties upon Mr. Sloan, the master of the feast. 
He was obdurate. His jolly companions greeted the lamenta- 
tions of the outsiders with roars of laughter. And he would 
occasionally open the door and roll out an empty bottle in 



mockery. The Mayor had no power or process for such an 
emergency, and the chronicler can only avenge himself by 
recording the incident for the warning of future travellers. It 
had one good effect. It broke up at once the pernicious system 
of dividing the sexes at dinner. Thereafter a table was estab- 
lished in the parlor, and both being graced by the presence of 
ladies, the meals in the car became models of elegance and pro- 
priety, and were enjoyed with more zest than those of any 
hotel. And it had another good effect. The merriment of 
that first dinner was so hearty, that it put the whole famil}^ in 
the best mood for enjoyment, and gave a tone of good humor 
and pleasant feeling, that prevaded the entire trip. 

Washington was reached at about five o'clock, and we found 
excellent accommodations awaiting us at Willards. Friday 
was spent in Washington, and the incidents of a city so familiar 
need not be dwelt upon. It may, however, be mentioned that 
some went to the Senate in the afternoon and heard Charles 
Sumner make his last speech on the bill concerning the Centen- 
nial Celebration. During the next week he died. 




"Yfy^^HINQTON TO -FylCHjVlOND. 



VX(n7r^7^E LEFT Washington at 8 a.m.. Saturday, March 
rS'Cy/auV^ 28th, for Richmond by a special train provided 
CK£>O0G\J/' for us through the kindness of the officers of 
the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. But at Washington the 
party suffered a serious loss. Mr. Sloan was advised by tele- 
graph of the illness of a child, and was obliged to return to 
New York with Mrs. Sloan. Mr. Taylor returned also, being 
unwilling to go without Mr. Sloan. We parted from them with 
great regret, but hoping that they would soon rejoin us. 

We reached Richmond at two, and before alighting from the 
car the train was run out upon the long bridge, in order that we 
might obtain a fine view of the citj^ Good quarters were in 
readiness at the Exchange Hotel, and there we established our- 
selves for the rest and quiet of Sunday. 

Mr. Fred'k Scott, President of the Richmond and Petersburg 
Railroad Company, called on Mr. Dennis and tendered all facili- 



10 



WASHINGTON TO RICHMOND. 



ties as to our journe}^, beginning the kind offices which were 
continued during the whole trip by the gentlemen in charge of 
the several railroads over which we passed, through all the 
Southern States. On Sunday many of the party went to tlie 
colored church to hear Brother Jasper preach. He is a flimous 
colored preacher and has great influence among his brethren 
through the South. Some went to old St. Paul's, where Jeff 
Davis was worshiping when he received the fiital message that 
told him that his slave confederacy was in ruins, and warned 
him to flee from Grant's conquering army. 




l\lCHMOND TO foX^UMBIA. 



tr)T^\^EFORE leaving Richmond the welcome news came 
ul^^ that the child was better, and that Mr. Sloan and Mr. 
^-^^yO Ta^'lor would rejoin us on Monday. At 2 o'clock on 
that day we left, and at the junction we found them just arrived 
by the Northern train. They were received like wanderers 
from the fold, and Mr. Sloan was at once installed in his old 
place as Master of the Revels — in which he achieved a success 
and gained a popularity that would astonish the Jersey com- 
muters. It was greatly regretted that Mrs. Sloan could not 
return. Her presence for two days had made us all feel how 
much pleasure she would give and receive if permitted to con- 
tinue the journey. So strong wa,s the feeling on this subject 
that it took the form of a letter to her to whicli eacli member 
contributed a paragraph. This document, written in pencil on 
a moving car, by twenty different hands, should be deposited in 
the Astor Library as a literary curiosity. 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 



On Monda}^, between Riclnnond and Greensboro', Mrs. Den- 
nis gave a state dinner in honor of the birthday of one of the 
gentlemen of the party. Mr. Perry was requested to take the 
responsible office of Commissary or Quartermaster, or whatever 
such a peaceful provider of sustenance for such a party should 
be called. Whatever may be the proper title, he covered him- 
self with glory in the discharge of his duties, as there will be 
further occasion to relate. 

This birthday dinner was his first exploit, and it was a master- 
piece. Mr. Sloan's heart warmed toward the outsiders whom 
he had put off with empty bottles, and he insisted that there 
should be no outsiders at this feast. The dining room should 
hold the whole party. And so it did, although it is probable 
that never were twenty-two people packed around a dinner 
table in smaller compass. And never, perhaps, was a dinner 
more thoroughly enjoyed. Mayor, Banker, Railroad Presidents, 
Editor, Merchant, Law3-er — all threw dull care away and gave 
themselves up to mirth and jollity, like children at a birthday 
feast. Flowers were presented by the ladies to the gentleman 
whose natal day was honored ; speeches were made, and merri- 
ment reigned supreme until night came on and it was necessary 
to consider how this jolly party of twenty-two should find rest- 
ing places on the rail, for we were to make no stop for the night. 
A Pullman car was attached to the train, and places enough en- 
gaged for those who could not sleep in our own car, which ac- 
commodates only eight sleepers. The gentlemen magnanimously 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 13 



offered to keep our own car and surrender the Pullman places 
to the ladies. But they were never allowed to show such self- 
sacrifice again. The ladies learned enough that night to know 
that their travelling hotel was better than any of the Pullman 
palaces. And when they crept out of their lioles in the morn- 
ing at Charlotte, after being entertained with the music of 
adjusting trucks at midnight at Greensboro', they presented a 
striking contrast to the hilarious dinner party of the preceding 
day. 

What is meant by'adjusting trucks? This is an important 
inquiry for those who wish to go in one car from New York to 
Florida. Let any ordinary car trv it, and when it comes to 
Greensboro' it must stop. It is as helpless to go further as a 
pile of wood. Two or three inches of difference in the width 
of the track, make a barrier as insurmountable as an ocean. 
All the locomotives on the continent could not pull it to Colum- 
bia. But with our travelling liouse the case is quite different. 
At midnight we reach Greensboro', and while we are all asleep, 
or trying to sleep, Charley puts on his blue cotton trousers, 
gathers up his hammers and wrenches — causes the car to be 
run over a pit along the sides of which the rails of different 
gauge run into each other — and there he skillfully loosens the 
bands of the adjustable axles and slowly runs the car along 
until the wheels have spread or narrowed till they fit the new 
track, — and then he tightens and screws all up again, and takes 
a last look at every joint and bolt — mindful of the precious load 
2 



14 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 



he carries — and then our moving house is adjusted to its new 
pathway, and rolls on towards the Land of Flowers. 

At early morning on Tuesday, March 3d, we found ourselves 
at the station at Charlotte, where again the trucks had to be 
adjusted. This allowed an hour for the inspection of the town. 
The vigilant Commissaiy was soon engaged in foraging through 
the city, and succeeded admirably. He also found some old 
citizens who had once been Jerseymen, and who hastened to 
the station to make a morning call upon some old friends. 

Those of the party who remained at the station found them- 
selves diverted by the movements of some strange specimens 
of humanity not indigenous to that region. An ancient female 
with foreign aspect, clothed in a man's great-coat, of a pattern 
unknown to American tailors, sat alone upon a huge black box, 
silent and stern, as if mounted in solemn guard over her entire 
household treasures. Some cabalistic marks showed tiiat the 
box had come from Flanders and was bound for Sc. Paul. Soon 
she was joined b}' an entire famil}', of which she seemed to be 
the grandmother. Father, mother and children in strange 
apparel, gathered about the box and held a family parley. We 
watched them with curious interest, and left them wondering 
how these human waifs had been washed into this Southern ed- 
dy by the tide of emigration which should have carried them 
across the country to the northern regions of the Mississippi. 
But probabl.y they had as much right to wonder what tide was 
carrying us from the Northern snows to the swamps of Florida. 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 15 



From Charlotte to Columbia there is little to relate. Break- 
fast and dinner on the car, which tended to increase the repu- 
tation of our Commissary. Foliage showing that we had indeed 
left Winter behind us. Cotton fields indicating that we were 
really in the Southern counr,r3^ Books and work and merry 
talk, and writing letters to friends at home — these were the only 
incidents of the day, which passed pleasantly and quickly, as 
all days do in this lazy and luxurious mode of travel. 

At six o'clock we reached Columbia and went to the Wheeler 
House. Perhaps it will be well to describe this now familiar 
process of arriving at a Hotel. By long practice it has reached 
the regularity of a piece of machinery. The telegraph an- 
nounces in advance the coming of the great Southern Excursion 
party. The omnibuses are ready at the station. As the car 
rolls into the city, each one picks up the bag and parcel familiar 
by regular use. We file out of the car and into the omnibus, and 
reaching the hotel, the ladies march to the reception room and 
patiently wait for their distribution through the house. Mr. 
Bajdis is first at the desk and records the well-known list in the 
accustomed order. The clerk profoundly studies the heav}^ 
problem presented to him, and as the numbers go down on the 
book each gentleman carries off" his ke}^ and hastens to the 
group of patient ladies, and summon those who properly apper- 
tain to him. One standing rule pervades the entire system — 
the gentleman with two wives must have a room for the odd 
one in some convenient proximity to that in which he and the 



16 RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 

regular one are quartered. Soon the whole parly is dispersed, 
to reappear at a fixed time in the dinning room, where, after 
proper refreshment, they arrange plans for seeing the town, 
and for continuing the course of travel. 

At the Wheeler House it was soon arranged that we should 
remain until 1 p. m. the next day, in order to drive about the 
town and to visit that famous political exhibition — the South 
Carolina Legislature. The regular train was to leave early, but 
we are enabled to set at nought all railway schedules and to 
ignore time-tables, for everywhere — b}^ the magical influence of 
Mr. Dennis over the railroad system — we can have a special 
train to start at any convenient hour. 

So after breakfast carriages were ready, and we spent two 
hours in driving about Columbia. 

This is not a handbook and will not give much information 
for future travellers as to the wide and shady streets — the ven- 
erable college and professors' houses surrounding a classic look- 
ing square — the neat barracks where the United States troops 
still keep in mind the terrible day when Sherman's army marched 
into the capitol of South Carolina — the long bridge destroyed 
by the citizens in their frantic efforts to save their soil from 
that desecration, or the ruins along the main street yet remain- 
ing to mark the path of the great fire which swept the centre of 
the town during the occupation. All these things we saw 
hastily as we drove through, but at noon we reached the point 
of special interest — the State House, begun on a grand scale 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 17 



in the palmy days of slavery, and designed to serve as the 
Capitol for the great Southern Confederacy, then dreamed of by 
John C. Calhoun and his followers. It stands now unfinished. 
Its massive columns and architraves are incomplete. It has been 
hurriedly and cheaply enclosed for temporarj^ use. The lower 
floor is without interior finish and is unused. A clumsy wooden 
roof destroys its symmetry. A rough board fence surrounds the 
enclosure, furnishing ample space for advertising minstrel shows 
and " Simmons' Liver Regulator." Just now it is resplendant 
with gorgeous pictures of the Wallace Sisters, who are to divert 
the Columbians for two nights with their astonishing perform- 
ances. But the building is really fine. Great masses of stone 
partially cut lie upon the ground, and the day will come when they 
will take their places in the structure, and make it, we may hope, 
the worth}' Capitol of a prosperous State ; and when its walls 
will ring with words, wiser if not more eloquent than those of 
Hayne, McDuffie and Calhoun. 

There are some chief stones in the building chipped and 
broken by the Union cannon. Let them remain to mark the 
time when it was saved from becoming the centre of legislation 
for a slave confederacy. 

The House was in session in the same hall in which, on the 
9th of November, 1860, a resolution was unanimously passed 
calling a Convention for the purpose of secession, which was, 
in effect, the first gun fired in the war. 

What a striking contrast in less than fourteen years ! Passing 



18 RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 



into the hall, where we were very courteously received, we found 
the body just assembled. A bright looking colored Speaker, 
who had been the body-servant of a Confederate General, 
called the House to order. A minister, black as ebuny, stepped 
forward to make a prayer. Perfect stillness prevailed while the 
prayer was uttered. Nothing could have been more solemn. 
In tone, manner and words, it was as noble a prayer as we ever 
listened to on such an occasion. Then came the exhibition. 
It must be confessed that as a diversion, it was rather disap- 
pointing. There were, it is true, eighty black and only forty- 
four white men. Some of the former made amusing pictures 
by the manner in which they used their new weapon, the pen, 
so much less familiar than the hoe. And their twisted heads 
and contorted mouths as the}'^ labored over letters to their con- 
stituents, were suggestive of the district school. And the 
stormy efforts made by some lively legislators to obtain the 
floor, were quite equal to those of a Northern legislative body 
during a morning hour. The most marked character, however, 
was Tim Plurley, a Massachusetts Irishman, who has settled in 
Columbia and become a leading spirit in the practical affairs of 
the place. Judging from the daily papers and common conver- 
sation, Tim is a novel element in South Carolina life, and is 
making a hurly-burly not at all agreeable to the descendants of 
the chivalry. 

We heard no wonderful speeches and we could form no opin- 
ion as to the value of their deliberations, but in truth, we voted 



RICHMOND TO COLUMBIA. 19 



the South Carolina Legislature a bore — the show did not come 
up to the promise of the play-bills. 

Soon after leaving the Capitol it was necessar}^ for us to pur- 
sue our journey, for our special train was ready at half-past one. 
A curious incident attended the arrangement of this " Special." 
Mr. Dennis was told on the preceding evening that no engine 
could be obtained. But Mr. Sloan discovered that there was 
an idle locomotive in Columbia, and they went to the telegraph 
office to talk the subject over with the Superintendent of the 
road at Charleston. But this officer could not be found, and the 
assistant could do nothing. Mr. Sloan would not give it up and 
continued to push his electrical inquiries. He insisted on know- 
ing where the Superintendent was. After search the answer 
came that he was at a ball. So the message was sent to the 
ball. But then came the answer that it was a masked ball — 
the annual Purim Ball — and that the officer could not be identi- 
fied among the masqueraders. But even this novel difficulty 
was overcome. The Superintendent was unmasked, and at 
once sent a courteous answer that we should have a special 
train. Thus do all obstacles vanish before the path of our 
moving house. It is a car of triumph. 

It should be mentioned that we passed in our drive through 
Columbia the handsome residence of Gen. Wade Flampton, and 
that as we left in the train the bells were tolling for the funeral 
of Mrs. Hampton. 



foLUJVlBIA TO j^HAF^LE^TOp^. 




E reached Charleston at ten o'clock in the even, 
ing. The approach to this famous city in the 
)G",i/' evening is not particularly agreeable. Pleas- 
ures of the eye being out of the question, the sense of smell 
has the ascendancy ; and the odors which surround us are not 
those of " Araby the blest," but of the pliosphate fertilizers 
which are manufactured in immense quantities in the suburbs, 
and are piled up at all the stations. If we can judge by the 
strength of the smell of these anti-deluvian deposits, which per- 
vades all the eastern parts of South Carolina and Georgia along 
the railroads, these States must soon abound in agricultural 
wealth. 

Our special train was expected at the Charleston Hotel, for 
we were ushered into the dining room at eleven o'clock and 
found an elaborate dinner ready for us. But one of our best car 
suppers had rendered us entirely incapable of doing further 
duty in that direction. 



COLUMBIA TO CHARLESTON. 21 



Thursday, March 5th, was our day in Charleston. It was too 
little for a cit}'^ of so much interest, but we prepared to make 
good use of the short time alloted to us. Fortunately it is a 
compact city, lying between its two noble rivers, and tln-ough 
the kindness of ver}^ attentive friends we were able to see 
it to great advantage. By the courtesy of Gen. Q. A. Gilmore, 
whom we had met at Richmond, we were provided with a re- 
quest to Col. Gilmore, in chariie of the U. S. troops at Charles- 
ton, to furnish us with a Government launch for a visit to Fort 
Sumter. Col. Gilmore called at the Hotel in the evening and 
arranged that our sail across the bay to the Fort should begin 
at three o'clock. During breakfast Col. Richard Lathers came 
and invited the whole party to assemble at his house to meet 
some friends at lunch, which we accepted with great pleasure. 

The morning was occupied in walking and driving about the 
old city, and observing the points made famous in the war. 
At noon we assembled at the beautiful house of Colonel 
Lathers on the Battery, where we were welcomed with great 
cordiality and introduced to a large company of gentlemen and 
ladies who had been invited to meet us. A fine picture galler\^ 
occupies a large space on the first floor, and in the top of the 
house is a large librarv well stocked with books and engravings, 
and commanding from two sides noble views of the city and 
harbor. From the balcony we could see Fort Sumter, and 
with a glass could trace the points made memorable during the 
long siege. Fort Moultrie, Sumter, James Island, Fort Johnson 
3 



22 COLUMBIA TO CH ARLKSTON. 



and other points whose names were once so terribly familiar, 
lay beneath us, and our intelligent host and his friends pointed 
out to us the scenes of the various operations of the war, and 
talked of its trials and its results, without a touch of bitterness 
and with no remark to awaken any unkind remembrances. 

Soon we assembled in the parlors and found a very handsome 
entertainment. We were welcomed in a formal speech and Mr. 
T;ivlor was called on to respond. He appealed to the lawj^er 
of our company vis their talking man, but that functionary had 
evidently left his talking apparatus at home, supposing he would 
have no use for it on this trip, and was obliged to call upon Mr. 
Sloan and Mr. Bishop, who were quite equal to the occasion, as 
they always are. The Mayor also very gracefull}' spoke of the 
old relations between his city and Charleston, and returned 
thanks for onr cordial entertainment. The Editor was called for 
in vain. He vanished mysteriously towards the close of the 
Mayor's speech and reappeared as soon as all danger of speech 
making had passed. The venerable Judge Brj-an, of the U. S. 
District Court, made happy compliments to the ladies, and Col. 
Simons closed with expressions of kindness and hospitality on 
the part of the citizens of Charleston. It was an occasion of 
great interest, and caused a general feeling that in this social 
intercourse of the educated classes of the North and the South, 
now so freely cultivated, is to be found the most efficient means 
of restoring good feeling, and healing finally the cruel wounds 
of the war. 



COLUMBIA TO CHARLESTON. 



As we looked out upon the bay rolling roughly under a stiff 
breeze, we feared that we must forego our trip to Sumter. But 
Col. Gilmore announced that it was safe, and at three we were 
at the dock ready for the sail. A sloop and the steam launch 
were in readiness and we divided the party between them. A 
short sail of three miles brought us beneath the battered walls 
of the old Port. But within a year past shoals have foroied 
close around the walls on the south and west, and the only 
access is by a short dock in water so shallow that only a small 
boat can approach, and then the ascent must be by a steep lad 
der. The waves ran high and the attempt to transfer the party 
in small boats seemed dangerous. But our ladies are full of 
courage and curiosity, and they make the venture boldl}'. They 
took Fort Sumter, but they will never tr}' it again under such 
circumstances. It proved hard enough to take it — scrambling, 
one by one, guided by a marine, from the bobbing boat up the 
perpendicular steps, — but tlie formidible matter was to leave it 
after they had taken it. The wind rose while we were examin- 
ing it, and when that crowd of pleasure seekers stood upon the 
dock and saw their craft out in the ba}^, and the little boat 
thumping against the foot of the ladder, and carried away by 
every wave, they began to think that after all the stories of the 
siege, the real trouble is to evacuate Fort Sumter after you have 
taken it. There were grave thoughts of holding possession at 
least for the night, hoping for a calm in the morning — but then 
the true pluck of the Morth prevailed, and one by one the 



24 COLUMBIA TO CHARLESTON. 



ladies made the perilous descent, and all were safely transferred 
to the vessels. 

We afterwards learned that Col. Gilmore had been seriously 
anxious, and we fancied that he had led many a storming party 
in hot earnest, with less anxiety than he felt when the Southern 
Excursion Party evacuated Fort Sumter under his command. 
We need not describe the fort. It is too well known by plioto- 
graph and pen. Let us only pay a tribute to the solitary crane 
which perambulates solemnly over rubbish and cannon balls — 
the pet of the workmen, apparently engaged on a government 
salary, in superintending the improvements. 

Huddled in the cabin to escape the cold wind and flying spray 
we soon found ourselves at the dock — not at all sorry to be on 
firm ground without accident. 

The evening was spent in giving and receiving visits and 
pleasant conversation with some of the most intelligent peuple 
of Charleston, and in preparation for our journey on the 
morrow. 

It may be mentioned that in the morning while preparations 
for departure were going on, one of the party whose grandfather 
died here in 1806, was guided by a little boy, familiar with the 
spot, to the grave under the walls of old St. Philip's Church, 
and copied the inscription on his tomb. 



j]lHAf^LEgTO)M TO ^AVANNAH. 



r?\'t,EFORE leaving Charleston we must part with Mr. and 




(pf\ Mrs. Martin R. Dennis and their son, who are to 
■"^ travel North by steamer. They did not intend to 
accompan}- us so far — but we regret to lose them, and beg hard 
that thev will at least leave Alfred with us, the party being on 
short allowance as to young men. But it could not be, and we 
left them at 9 o'clock, again by special, for Augusta. 

We stopped at Aiken for an hour and walked through the 
town. Some of the party found friends spending the winter in 
noted resort for invalids. Tt is finely situated in the midst of 
pine forests, and has a balmy atmosphere and a clean, sober, 
quiet air, suited to an abode for the weak and suffering — but it 
was not specially attractive and it seems to be pervaded by a 
sense of sadness, as a place in which people are bound in a sort 
of sanitary prison house. Yet as we passed at the foot of the 
hill on which stands Highland Park Hotel, tlie piazzas were 



26 CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH. 



bright with waving handkerchiefs and rang with merry voices — 
so perhaps they are not unhappy after all. 

We arrived at the Planters' Hotel, Augusta, at four o'clock, 
in time to take a pleasant drive through the broad and shaded 
streets and to see the main features of this thriving towa. It 
shows every token of wealth and prosperity. It suffered little 
in the war and seems to be inhabited by a population much 
more thrifty and energetic than usual in the Southern States. 

In the morning of Saturday. March 7th, we bad our first rain 
— a soft Summer rain — just enough to brighten up the vegeta- 
tion and to add to the comfort of our journey to Savannah, 
which began at eleven in a special train, with Col. Wadley's 
car attached to ours, making a palatial suite of apartments, con- 
sisting of six rooms. We soon rolled into clear weather — or 
the clouds rolled away from us — for onlj^ the signal service 
bureau could tell how we contrived to travel about among the 
atmospheric currents so as to strike only two rains in a month.* 

In whatever way it was, we soon found ourselves in lovely 
weather, passing through a beautiful country, rich in cotton 
fields and bright with yellow jasmine. 

Our Commissary was evidently making preparations for an 
extraordinary dinner, in harmony with the high spirits of the 



*Mr. and Mrs. Martin K. Dennis spent the morning in Washington at the office oif 
the Signal Service, in conaultation witli Gen. Meyer concerning the mysteries of 
weather prophecy. Perhaps it was all arranged then as a part of the thorough 
equipment of our tour. 



CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH. 27 



household. Though he had ransacked the Augustan markets 
for delicacies, he scented a wild turkey at a station ten miles 
beyond. The intimation of this game probably came to Mr. 
Sloan by telegraph, and the (commissary provided himself with 
funds and prepared to secure the prize regardless of expense. 
He rushed to the platform and inquired for the man with the 
wild turkey. A colored gentleman with his hands in his pock- 
ets volunteered the information that the turkey was " done 
gone." So we had no wild turkey for dinner, but nevertheless 
we had a royal feast and a merry time, for after the cloth was 
removed we were entertained by an elaborate Life of Sam 
Sloan, written and road amidst uproarious applause, by Mr. 
Bishop. It is to be regretted that the manuscript of this Biog- 
raphy of our genial fellow-traveller was lost or in some manner 
suppressed, so that it cannot be incorporated into this narrative. 
But none of the listeners will forget the stirring incidents and 
remarkable events, detailed b}^ Mr. Bishop, or the cordial eulo- 
gies of Mr. Sloan made by the speakers at the close of the 
biography. 

At five o'clock we reach Savannah. We found at the Station 
open carriages awaiting us, provided b}^ the kindness of Mayor 
Anderson and Mr. Cunningham, and stopping for a few minutes 
at the Screven House, we drove through the city to Bonaven- 
ture. This is a noble grove of Live Oaks, formerly a countr}^ 
residence, and now a Cemetery. It seems a place better 
adapted for the repose of the dead than for the home of the 



28 CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH. 



living. The great oaks are ranged in long lines and form vast 
aisles and avenues, with all their branches hung with moss and 
swinging solenmly above the graves. The sunset was remarka- 
bly fine and the effect of the golden sky through the long vistas 
of moss and foliage was very impressive. Driving around 
through Thunderbolt we reached the Hotel after dark and took 
possession of our ample quarters for three days' sojourn in 
Savannah. 

Sunday morning was devoted to Church, and the way home 
from all the Churches to any quarter of the City, seems to lie 
through Fursyth Park, in the midst of which stands their famous 
fountain. After Church we met at the Hotel, Judge Schley of 
the Superior Court of Savannah, and Mrs. Schley, formerly 
Mrs. Keep of New York. They were just arranging for a trip 
to St. John's River, and soon agreed to join our part^^ We 
found them most agreeable companions — and a, fortunate com- 
pensation for the loss of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Sloan, who were 
to leave us at this point for the North. 

In the afternoon we were invited by the Mayor to visit the 
Barracks to witness the drill of the City Police. This was, for 
us, an unaccustomed service for Sunda}' afternoon, but we ac- 
cepted, and from four to six we found ourselves in the Barracks 
looking down upon the well kept drill ground and watching the 
evolutions of a body of sixty men in military uniform, every 
one of whom was formerly a soldier in the war, on one side or 
the other — now united in the more peaceful duty of pre- 



CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH. 



29 



serving order in a city. They had lost none of their old habits 
of discipline, and their movements during that Sunday after- 
noon drill made it plain that Savannah is a poor field for 
rioters. 

The evening was pleasantly occupied by calls from friends of 
the diflFerent members of the party. 

On Monday after breakfast we were ordered by Mr. Sloaii to 
assemble at 10 o'clock at the rooms of a Savannah Photographer, 
in order that the " counterfeit presentment" of the great South- 
ern Excursion Party might be put in enduring shape for future 
generations. The hilarity of the hour in the crowded room of 
the Savannali Artist, will be long remembered. One incident, 
not exhibited in the picture, should at least be preserved in this 
record. 

Just as the second group had, after infinite trouble, been sat- 
isfactorily posed, with the stalwart and imposing figure of Mr. 
Tavlor occupying the central space in a sitting posture, with the 
other nine in their best attitudes about him — ^just as the solemn 
operator had subdued their smiles and succeded in fixing their 
several countenances into tliat blank and rigid shape in which 
we are usually put up for posterity by the country artist — ^.just 
as the last whisper had ceased, and each pair of eyes was 
directed to its allotted point of vision, and the mysterious brass 
cap was about to be removed from the camera — ^just at that 
critical moment there appeared suddenly a new figure in the 
foreground — an astonishing interloper into the exclusive circle 



CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH. 



of Northern millionaires, to be transmitted by the pencil of the 
sun to future generations — a negro baby in the lap of Mr. 
Taylor ! What a pity that even the rays of the sun were not 
swift enough to catch that remarkable picture before the explo- 
sions of laughter in the whole group reduced the photographer 
to a state of despair. And whence came this little sable 
visitant so suddenly — this waif of the log-cabin into the arms 
of the President of the City Bank of New York ? 

While the other group were banished to the adjoining room, 
in order that they might not disturb the gravity of those who 
were to undergo the operation, a timid looking colored woman 
came up the stairs with a baby in her arms. With his quick 
genius for making fun, and without a word of explanation to the 
astonished mother, Mr. Sloan snatched the child from her arms, 
and in an instant he had darted through the door and deposited 
it in the lap of his distinguished friend, and vanished from the 
scene. The baby, with the meekness of its race, uttered no 
cry, but lay contented in its novel position, as if well content 
to be identified photographically with such superior beings. 
The mother took the kidnapping as a matter of course, and 
waited patiently to see whether the child was to be returned or 
was really to be adopted by the party. 

Mr. Taylor did not seem anxious for this addition to his 
picture, and Mr. Sloan was obliged to restore the little angel 
cut in ebony to its parent. It was feared that the picture, with 
this adjunct, would be deemed an overwrouglit illustration of the 



CHAKLKSTON TO SAVANNAH. 



union of the North and South at this stage of reconstruction. 

After the picture was completed we returned to the Hotel 
where, through the great kindness of Col. Screven, we found 
carriages ready to take the whole party to visit the cotton 
presses in the city and his rice plantation at Brewton Hill. At 
the latter place, as we stood upon the bluff overlooking the wide 
stretch of low land along the Savannah River, forming the rice 
growing region, we were entertained by vivid descriptions of the 
operations of Sherman's army which made its headquarters at 
this point at the time of the capture of the city. 

The old mansion house of the plantation was inhabited only 
by a colored woman — called ''Old Rose," who gave us some 
amusing accounts of plantation life in old times, assuring us 
that she knew all the history of the Screven family when they 
occupied the house, because " she growed in de ditch." 

After a very pleasant day we spent a merry evening at the 
Hotel, where we were visited b}^ Gen. Gilmer, Gen. Lawton. 
the Chief Quartermaster of the Confederate Army, Mayor An- 
derson, Messrs. Cuyler, Cunningham, Judge Stites, and others, 
by all of wliom we were treated most kindl}^ during our stay in 
their charming city. 

In the morning we were to set off for a long journey to Jack- 
sonville. And here occurred a remarkable illustration of the 
advantages we enjoy in the way of railroad travelling. Tlie 
track to Jacksonville does not connect at Savannah with that 
by which we came from Augusta. The depots are in different 



OHARLKSTON TO SAVANNAH. 



parts of the city. How were we to find our car at the Jackson 
ville station ? This was a difficulty easily overcome. While 
we were enjo3'in,i;' ourselves at Savannah, our travelling home 
was hooked on to a train for Macon under the care of Charles 
and Ben, and rolled away two hundred miles, and back again by 
another road connecting at Macon to the Jacksonville Depot at 
Savannah, thus making a circuit of four hundred miles, in order 
to be in waiting for us a few blocks from where we left it. 




^AVANN/\H TO jACK^Of^ VILLi 



V<V^NtN Tuesda}', March lOtli, at eight o'clock, we started 
'U \((g)/p by special train for Jacksonville, with the pleasant 
■*"~=^S>^^ addition of Judge and Mrs. Schley to our party. 
Col. Screven was to accompany us, but was prevented by 
the illness of a child. He most kindly made all prepara- 
tions for our long journey, sending his Superintendent, Mr. 
Haines, with his special car, which, with our own, comprised 
the whole train. We soon entered upon a vast stretch of pine 
forests, through which we rolled on all day — enjoying a capital 
dinner. 

Among the pleasant incidents that beguiled the long night- 
ride through swamps and pine forests, where spectral fires lit 
the dark recesses, was a " last tea party" — a surprise devised 
by Mrs. Dennis in commemoration of those tea-total re-unions 
which relieved the cold winter at home. "The cup that cheers 
but not inebriates" was drawn from the stock of Souchong of a 



34 SAVANNAH TO JAOKSUNVILLK. 



member of the party, whose provident better- half had smuggled 
it into his luggage, as if in anticipation of the crisis. Amidst 
the sober revehy of the occasion a toast was proposed by Mrs. 
Dennis and drunk with all the honors, in remembrance of Mrs. 
Kinney. 

As we crossed the Suwanee River we celebrated the passage 
b}' singing the famous negro melody concerning that classic 
stream. Our "Special," on the single track, was obliged to 
wait for all regular trains, and it was long after midnight when 
we reached Jacksonville — the end of railroad travel on the 
Atlantic coast — where we were to leave our car for our steam- 
boat trip up and down the St Johns River. 

It was near two o'clock in the morning when we reached the 
ample comforts of the St. James' Hotel. 

Here we gave ourselves up to rest, and the lirst enjoyment 
of the balmy atmosphere of Florida, until the morning of Thurs- 
day, when we were to begin our River trip. 




^T. JoHN3 l\lVEI^. 



J^f^^^ Thursday, March 12th, 1874, at 3 p.m., we left 
^ VLf^yp ^'^® '^^- J^n^^s Hotel at Jacksonville, for a trip up 
>-^=£2:^^^^^ and down the St. Johns River. This journey, the 
real object of the excursion, deserves special description. 

None of the party had ever seen the St. Johns, and it is well 
to begin with a general view of the features of the river, even 
though it be only such as we could find in any book on physical 
geography. 

It is wholly different from the other rivers of the South. It 
does not flow like them, yellow and turbid with the wash of barren 
shoi'es. Its waters are of dark amber color, breaking into a 
bright golden hue beneath the wheels of the steamer. They 
flow or rather glide for over 300 miles between banks of peren- 
nial and almost unbroken green. For over sixty miles above 
Jacksonville it is a placid stream, varying in width from one 
to five miles — sometimes widening into great lagoons. There 



36 ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



are even within this distance few tokens of human life, or evi- 
dences of cultivation on its shores. Mandarin, 15 miles — 
Hibernia, '25 miles — Magnolia, 28 miles — Green Cove Springs, 
30 miles — Tocoi, 53 miles — Pilatka, 75 miles, and a few insig- 
nificant wooding stations, are the onl}^ marks which man has 
made upon its shores up to the point where a few miles above 
Pilatka, the banks approach each other and crowd the waters 
into a narrow meandering stream, through which the steamer 
winds its way, beneath the overhanging branches of the palms 
and moss-hung oaks. Beyond Pilatka this amber river wanders 
at will through these walls of green, sometimes almost doubling 
upon itself, but keeping its general course due north, parallel 
with the shore of the Atlantic, of which it was probabl}^ once a 
part ; and sometimes as at Lake George, and Lake Monroe, 
broadening into vast lagoons, irregular in shnpe, indented with 
lesser bays, but always lined with masses of perpetual verdure. 
And along the banks of this wonderful river so rich in wild 
natural beauty, wherever the evidences of human life are seen, 
we find the orange groves — small patches of green and gold 
upon the sunny slopes, easily observed as we glide along, from 
their sharp contrast with the lofty masses of palm and oak 
foliage behind them. 

With this general view of the St. Johns, we begin our up- 
ward journey in the steamer City Point on her way from 

« 
Charleston to Pilatka — our own part of her trip to extend only 

from Jacksonville to Green Cove Springs. 



ST. .rOHNS RIVER 37 



The party consists of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis, Mr. and Mrs. 
Bacon, Miss Helen Bacon, Miss Anne Bacon, Mr. and Mrs. 
Perry, Mr. and Mrs. Baylis, Mr. and Mrs. Keasbey, Mr. and Mrs. 
Bishop, Mrs. Dodd, Judge Schley and wife of Savannah, Mr. 
Kinne}^ and Mr. Samuel S. Dennis. We were to be joined at 
Tocoi by Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson, the mother and father of 
Mrs. Bishop. 

Jacksonville lies at a sharp bend of the river, and as we 
leave the dock we could, with a glass, see the cottage of Mrs. 
Stowe at Mandarin, to which point the steamer made her way 
through the river, which is here so wide as to make the trip 
comparatively uninteresting. It is the proper beginning, how- 
ever, of a river on which we are to sail two hundred miles. 

As we approach Mandarin we see a sloping elevation about 
ten feet above the river, on which the natural forest has been 
partially cleared, leaving fine groves of oak and palmetto, inter- 
spersed with orange groves and gardens. Four or five neat 
houses stand facing the water, with lawns planted with 
orange trees, sloping to the water's edge. Among them stands 
conspicuous the dwelling of Mr. William King of Newark, and 
just south of that, the low gothic cottage of Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe stands at the edge of a great grove of oaks and 
in the midst of a luxuriant orange grove. The house of Mr. 
Crane of Newark, is also seen north of Mr. King's on the river 
bank, shadowed also by a fine grove of Oak and Palm. 

The burly form of Mr. King was seen upon the dock, and as 



38 ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



he caught a glimpse of the familiar Newark faces one b}'" one, 
his hearty greeting gave us some notion of the dearth of society 
that must be suffered by the winter dwellers on the St. Johns. 

We landed, and came very near being forcibly captured and 
carried off to his home. 

We found also the two daughters of Mrs. Stowe upon the 
dock, to whom Mr. Dennis gave messages of remembrance to 
their mother. Then we steamed away to Hibernia, a few miles 
up the river, on the other side. This consists of a fine hotel in 
a grove upon the river bank — the resort of Philadelphians, 
some of whom, known to Mrs. Bacon, were on the dock to 
witness the great event of the day, the arrival of the steamer. 

Next we land at Magnolia, which seems to be by general 
consent the choice spot on the river — a fine green lawn with 
groups of oak and orange trees and a background of forest — a 
large well-kept hotel, with twelve cottages along the river bank 
— and nothing more — no straggling village — no shops or 
cabins — nothing but a quiet, well appointed home, for the best 
people of the North seeking the health and beauty to be found 
abundantly along the shores of the St. Johns — but here, they 
think, existing in the greatest perfection. 

But we were bound for Green Cove Springs, two miles above, 
around a wooded point, and there about sunset we landed with 
our luggage, to abide for the night. 

Two vociferous colored gentlemen shouted the praises of the 
Clarendon and the Palmetto House, in a manner worthy of the 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. 39 



most populous city. We delivered our "small traps," as light 
articles of luggage are called, to the champion of the Clarendon 
and walked to that institution, making a very respectable pro- 
cession. As we approached we passed a high fence surrounding 
a large enclosure in a ravine in front of the Hotel. The signifi- 
cant action of each nose of our procession as it passed this 
fence, gave token that it enclosed the famous Blue Sulphur 
Spring and the swimming baths appurtenant thereto. But just 
at this moment the question of lodging was more pressing than 
that of bathing to a body of nineteen travellers, and it soon 
appeared that the Clarendon could not accommodate all our 
party. Some were billeted upon the citizens of the village, for 
this is really a town in the Floridian sense, and three of the 
party, who have such a habit of hanging together through the 
whole trip that they are described as the man and two wives — 
were sent to the Palmetto House, where they were joined by 
the single gentleman of the party. This turned out to be a 
most fortunate division of forces. The Palmetto is the old 
original pioneer house of this locality. Around it clustered all 
the sacred associations of this Bethesda. It was the first human 
dwelling through which the life-giving odors of sulphuretted 
hydrogen were wafted. Here the first crippled pilgrims to 
Green Cove nursed their rheumatic joints. Here first the 
broken down and conscience stricken editor, the dilapidated 
merchant, the seedy and extinct politician, the rickety railroad 
president, and the played-out lawyer, first sought refuge from 



40 ST. JOHN'S RIVEK. 



an ungrateful world and rejuvenation for their failing powers and 
tottering limbs. Here they dwelt in solitude, encircled by jun- 
gles and rattlesnakes, in the hope that by daily ablution in the 
clear blue waters of the spring, and by long inhalation of its 
sulphuretted fumes, they might, at last — 

" Restore to wintrj- age 
Tlie greenness of its spring." 

Impressed with these hallowed associations, the supernumera- 
ries of the Clarendon took up their " small traps" and wended 
their way to the Palmetto. It stands about 100 yards from the 
Clarendon, but just on the edge of a palmetto jungle. It is a 
low and unpretending structure, with a roof which has spread 
out on both sides so as to enclose the piazzas and make more 
room for guests. As we reached the gate the ladies broke into 
exclamations of delight, for here was a row of fine Oi-ange trees in 
full bearing, growing so close to the house that as we stand on 
the upper piazza we can almost pluck the golden fruit. This is 
our first experience of Orange trees actually at hand, and our en- 
thusiasm is worthy of the occasion. After tea we stood upon the 
balcony watching through rhe orange trees the lighting of the 
street lamps of Green Cove. It is done in novel fashion. 
Before each liotel a post is fixed in the ground about four feet 
high, on the top oi' wliich is fastened a shallow box about three 
feet square, covered with a layer of brick. Upon these a sable 
Vulcan builds up a cage of pine splinters, which he fills with 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. 41 



fat pine knots. These he lights from below, and the flames 
shoot up brightly and burn merrily throughout the evening, 
bringing ont the hotels and the cabins of the village in full re- 
lief against the sombre forest in the background. Around 
these street fires gather the youth of the village, piling on the 
pine knots, and dancing in the firelight like imps of darkness — 
interspersed with curious visitors, like spirits from some higher 
sphere. 

Tea disposed of, and the watch-fires duly examined, the 
dwellers at the Clarendon came in couples to visit the outcasts 
of the Palmetto. They were received in the state room with 
gushing hospitality. In the absence of chairs enough, the two 
beds and the wood box furnished ample accommodation. The 
host succeeded, after a large combustion of old newspapers, in 
lighting a wood fire on the hearth, and then the company gave 
themselves up to merriment without restraint. Jokes and 
stories were the order of the evening. At a proper hour we 
sought our respective (quarters through the town. After break- 
fast, Mr. Lewis B. Brown sent a wagon from the Magnolia 
Hotel, where he is spending the winter. He is the patriarch 
and founder of the place, and considers it the choice spot on 
the river — as in fact is the case with all the sojourners on the 
banks as to their respective localities. 

Six of the party went to the Magnolia, a drive of about a 
mile through the woods, and took a hurried view of the Hotel 
and the cottages. They are admirably situated at a fine point 



42 ST. JOHNS KIVER. 



on the river in a grove of lofty oaks, with a line of orange trees 
in front, and a broad lawn sloping to the river. The house is 
well kept and the company excellent. They are near enough 
to the spring to enjoy its healing virtues, and we are prepared, 
after our thorough exploration of the river, to agree that Mr. 
Brown has chosen the best point for a winter sojourn on the St. 
Johns. 

The last liour of our stay at Green Cove was devoted to the 
spring. It bubbles up from a ravine in front of the hotel — a 
rich volume of water at the temperature of 78°, glowing in the 
sunlight with prismatic colors, in which a light blue prevails, and 
flows through some buildings erected for bathing purposes. 
Going into a room and inquiring of a colored lady tiie necessary 
preparations for ablution, she replies, '' pay me twenty-five 
cents and go through that door.'' These preliminaries adopted, 
we find ourselves in an open space, enclosed in a high board 
fence — where the clear blue water sparkles in the sun, showing 
the white sand at a depth of about four feet — the whole space 
being about 25 x 60. Small dressing rooms line a platform, 
from which we descend to the bath. Here the gentlemen dis- 
ported themselves, while the ladies sat outside, like Tantalus, 
at the source of the healing fluid, but unable to test its powers 
for want of bathing dresses. 

At noon we boarded the Starlight in a body and endeavored 
to distribute ourselves among the quarters assigned to us. 
There were only ten rooms reserved for twent}^ people, includ- 



ST. JOHNS RITER. 



43 



ing Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson, who were to get on at Tocoi, and 
the lone woman aforesaid. Each room had two shelves called 
berths, and standing room for two. A careful consideration of 
the problem thus suggested in all its bearings, will lead inevita- 
bly to the conclusion that two of these must be left out in the 
cold. The gentleman with two wives contributed to the solu- 
tion by bundling them both together, and marking out his own 
place of rest between the legs of the dining table, and the 
whole matter was afterwards settled by Mr. Tomlinson pre-empt- 
ing the other two legs of the same table. Then we were ready to 
behold and enjoy the beauties of the river, and to keep a sharp 
look-out for alligators. 

We stop at Picolata, a small and forlorn station not yet 
patronized by pleasure seekers, and then at Tocoi, where the 
train starts for St. Augustine— then at Pilatka, 75 miles from 
Jacksonville. Of these places we will speak on our downward 
way. Some miles beyond Pilatka the river becomes narrower, 
and the scenery finer, but widens again at Lake George, through 
the broad and shallow waters of which we sail for sixteen 

miles. 

At ten o'clock a strange light is seen upon the starboard, 
gleaming alone upon the still watei-, and near it as we approach 
we discern a dark object, which at daylight we discover to be a 
hogshead anchored to a stake in three feet of water. This is 
Volusia bar, a belt of sand drifted across the moutli of the 
river as it broadens into the lake. AVe were destined to become 



44 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



very familiar with this locality. Just after our company had 
for the most part curled themselves up in their several boxes, 
we felt the steamer grind upon the sand between the light and 
the barrel. She pushed and plunged in vain effort to get over. 
She backed and pegged away at what might prove a softer spot. 
But it was "no go." She stuck obstinately. Being heavily 
loaded and drawing over four feet, she could not float in three 
feet of water. She kept up a brave struggle, however, through 
"the long hours of the night. The two gentlemen whose state- 
rooms were under the table, sought their downy couches about 
midnight, and left the boat in charge of Mrs. Bishop and the 
captain. But just then the water in the boilers gave out, and 
they started a donkey engine directly under the floor. It 
pumped and wheezed and rattled and shook. The boat cracked 
and shivered in its vain efforts to sail upon sand, and these two 
outsiders, not being accustomed to such a lullaby, forsook their 
pillows and turned in to help Mrs. Bishop and the Captain 
"boost" the boat over the bar. But there she stuck, "till day- 
light did appear," and long after that. When the sleepers 
turned out one by one, they rubbed their eyes and saw the 
same old barrel and the lamp on a stick, burning in a sickly 
manner in the light of the morning. They had heard 
such a furious commotion in the machinery during the night 
that they fondly imagined that we were steaming on through 
the forest lined river and had passed into Lake Monroe, upon 
which lies Enterprise, the end of our course. But by this time 



ST. JOHNS RIVKK. 45 



Mrs. Bishop had resigned her command in despair, and all her 
blandishments had failed to keep the Captain in good humor. 
To all inquiries of the passengers he gave some surly answer, 
and the best information we could get was that in the course of 
the season some freshet might come and raise the river, or some 
other boat might come along and tug us off — or we might find 
a scow and put five or six tons of passengers ashore and dimin- 
ish the draught so that she would float. With these encourag- 
ing assurances we sat down to breakfast. 

Time will not permit of a description of a breakfast on the 
Starlight, stuck on a sand bar, and if it did, there is not genius 
enough in the party to do the subject justice. If a bluer party 
ever sat down to a more beggarly breakfast, than the Great 
Southern Excursion Party on the 14th of March, 1874, on 
Volusia bar, we would like to see an account of it by a writer 
equal to the task. 

But all troubles liave an end — all sand bars yield to patient 
pushing by Yankee steamboats. Just as we thought that our 
boilers were fast diminishing the lake by drinking it up, and 
burning up all tlie combustibles on board, except tlie grease in 
which they fry their food, siie bumped over the bar and was 
off. We don't know how — even Mrs. Bishop could not explain. 
By some mysterious agency, or by some convulsion of nature, 
the sand shrank or the waters rose, and away we sailed. 

A few minutes after we were stuck again, but witli a last con- 
vulsive lunge, she fairly floated in deep water and ploughed her 
6 



46 ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



way to the narrow mouth of the river. A wonderful change 
came over the party. It was only ten o'clock, and we were 
now to enter upon the most beautiful part of the river, in the 
light of one of the loveliest days that could be found in any 
clime or season. The only result of our twelve hours on the 
sand bar was to reveal a blessing in disguise. We were to tra- 
verse the finest part of the river up and down by day, without 
increasing the time of the round trip. We simply stood still 
at the sand bar instead of the dock at Enterprise. The ladies 
were fresh and radiant. The Captain cleared the sulky clouds 
from his face and took Mrs. Bishop into his councils once more. 
It was generally agreed that the very best way to sail up the 
St. Johns is to stick for twelve hours on a sand bar in Lake 
George. The boat passed into the winding aisles of the river, 
overarched with foliage and pendant moss, and plied her devious 
way through ever-changing curves, sometimes slowly swinging 
so as just to graze the banks, and to allow us to pluck a palm 
leaf from the shore, and then veering off to strike her course to 
the line of the next curve. We all took our places on the decks 
at either end and gave ourselves up to tlie full enjoyment of 
the dreamy beauty of the scene. Mile after mile — hour after 
hour — curve after curve, through endless lanes of living green, 
and through little verdant islands, floating on the dark water 
— with the winding path of the stream through the vast fields 
of verdure marked out for us in advance by the double lines of 
palms and oaks which grow to greater height along the opposite 



banks — with herons, cranes and eagles swooping over the forest 
or skimming over the water surfiice — with sudden surpris(.'S 
where the narrow river spread out into little lakes or formed 
some nook or bower of moss hung foliage, presenting some 
feature of peculiar natural beaut}-, or perhaps showing by 
an orange grove and group of cabins, some tokens of the work 
of man attempting to make some slight impression on this vast 
wilderness of growth. 

Upon this scene, ever shifting, yet ever the same, we sit and 
gaze hour after hour as the lazy, silent boat glides on mile after 
mile upon the narrow liquid path cut through this pathless forest 
so lately lifted from the sea. Is it monotonous? Yes, if 
monotony is sameness, for here through all the hours of a long 
dav is one unbroken sameness of palm and oak, orange and 
magnolia, swinging their mossy arms over a slender thread of 
dark water that winds along by endless curves on its slow 
way to the Atlantic. But not monotonous, if that means tire- 
some from reiteration, for all day long we gaze and exchange 
exclamations of delight. At every turn we see new beauties, 
and call attention to them as if they were really new. Yet if 
we stop to criticise, they are found to be only whaX we have 
seen all day, with only some delicate new touch of color or 
form which gives a fresh sensation of delight, and makes what 
seems a scene of unvarynig sameness, a source of ever chang- 
ing pleasure. But this summer glamour of the St. Johns must 
not beguile us into the sentimental vein. Let us turn our at- 



48 ST. JOHNS lilVEK. 



teiition to alligators. These are much abused beasts. In their 
natural element, sprawling at ease in these laz_v waters, where 
for thousands of years their ancestors have been undisturbed 
in their sylvan security, they glide as did their forefathers up 
the slimy edge of tiie stream into some sunny verdurous nook, 
where the}^ take their siesta and revel in undisturbed repose — 
little dreaming of Northern tourists, and liaving no knowledge 
of villanous saltpetre. Such was the liapp}^ condition of alli- 
gators in by-gone days. But alas ! all is changed. Now a 
murderous looking Yankee sits by the taffrail holding a cocked 
gun, glaring with fiendish eyes into the green borders — losing 
all consciousness of the beauty of the river in his insane desire 
to pepper the hide of an alligator with his buckshot. 

As soon as we got the first glimpse of the scaly back of one 
of these innocent reptiles, we heard the bang of this Yankee 
blunderbuss, and before we could observe his proportions or see 
the play of his " horrid jaws," away he sprawled into the sedge 
— while the Yankee coolly loaded liis piece, no more impressed 
with the maledictions of the ladies, than the reptile was with 
the buckshot. 

In tills manner many of the ladies were compelled to strain 
their necks in vain to catch their first view of an alligator; and 
on one occasion, at a sharp alarm of a ten footer, one whose 
eyes had not yet been blessed by the sight, sprang from her 
seat and came rushing to the other side, was only saved from 
tumbling down the open hatchway by falling into the arms of 



ST. JOHNS KIVER. 49 



Mr. R. H. Lamborn — a most agreeable gentleman who joined 
us at Green Cove, and who will have further mention in this 
recital. At this point the patience of the party was exhausted 
and it was determined to take strong measures with the Yan- 
kee disturber of reptile serenit3^ Wo resolved to discharge 
upon the him a volley of strong language, and we fixed upon 
our Editor as the person best qualified by calling and practice 
for such an emergency. Although he discharged this painful 
duty in his best style, it must be confessed that it had no per- 
ceptible effect upon his hide, which was harder than the alliga- 
tor's and he peppered away all day, even taking the precaution 
to get his wife to hold his gun cocked, when he wanted to move 
his position. May the maledictions of all tourists and the wrath 
of all the reptiles in Florida follow hira who perverts the manly 
art of the sportsman by shooting alligators in their innocent 
afternoon slumbers on the banks of the St. Johns. 

And now, having stopped at Volusia and bought some feath- 
ers and other souvenirs of the forest and the sea from Mrs. 
Langren, formerly from Burlington, New Jersey, who thus sup- 
ports her sick husband in an humble house in this secluded 
spot — we pass at sunset into the broad waters of Lake Monroe, 
on whicli stands Enterprise — the end of our river journey — so 
named, we infer, from the daring character of those enterprising 
spirits who first invaded the solitude of this primeval wilderness 
of green. But Enterprise is not yet reached, for Lake Monroe 
is a vast sheet of water some ten miles wide and twenty miles 



50 ST. JOHNS RIVEK. 



long, and out from its southern shore line still runs the St. 
Johns through still more tropical forests until it reaches its 
source in the Everglades, yet untrodden by human foot. For 
miles we steam away across this Lake, past Sanford to Mellon - 
ville, which we reached at sunset. It seems idle to attempt to 
linger in any further description of the strange beauty of this 
river, but it has a marvellous fascination, and as we sail into the 
broad lake we gaze back through the soft light of sunset and 
seek to peer again into the narrow gateway of green from which 
we had just emerged. What is the spell by which it binds us? 
It is not a sudden attack of sentimentality seizing the sober 
chouicler of these incidents, for it is thrown upon all alike. 
Nothing avails to break its force. Grounding on a sand-bar — 
narrow shelves for beds — stifling rooms, execrable food — tourists 
with guns, " nuxking a nuisance of the blessed air" — all these 
have no effect, nor would a hundred other personal discomforts 
have any influence to disturb the charm of this simple thread 
of amber water wandering through the sylvan solitudes of 
Florida. What is the spell ? We cannot say. There are no 
mountain summits, no quiet valleys — no glens or dells or water- 
falls — no massive piles of art or nature — none of the usual 
features which combine to make the fine landscape for painter 
or poet ; nothing but palms and oaks aTid tangled vines, and 
wild wreaths of swaying moss, and banks of floating verdure — 
all spread out upon a level plain along the borders of a winding 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



51 



stream— repeated endlessly for a hundred miles, and basking in 
the changing light of a Florida March day. 

Shaking off then the spell of this fascinating river as an in- 
scrutable mystery, we come down to sober facts as to the sur- 
roundings of Lake Monroe. Before reaching Mellonville we 
pass a tract of 10,000 acres on the west shore of the lake, pur- 
chased within the present month by Mr. William Astor of New 
York, a son of William B. Astor. On the Starlight we found 
a man who was on his way to the place to build a cabin for his 
habitation and to take charge of the property— a bronzed and 
wiry man of forty, blunt of speech, intelligent and sturdy— the 
figure of a hardy pioneer. He was about to plant an outpost 
of civilization, and with his axe and briar-hook to make the first 
mark of human labor upon this primitive forest, and to take the 
first step in the wilderness that will lead at last to orange 
groves and pleasant homes. It is a brave work. The same 
that has peopled a continent and joined the two oceans, and we 
wish the hardy fellow God-speed as we leave him on the dock 
at Mellonville. 

At Sanford, two miles north of Mellonville, where the boat 
does not touch, we see the new town, founded by Hon. Henry S. 
Sanford, late minister to Belgium, who has bought a large tract 
and is engaged in extensive improvements, planting large 
orange groves and making various experiments in agriculture 
suited to the latitude. The tall spire of the new Episcopal 
Church shows finely against the dark pines beyond. 



52 ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



We touch at Mellonville, which is on the site of old Fort 
Mellon, and has quite a busy air for a Florida settlement. In 
the purple haze that follows sunset, we sail across the lake to 
Enterprise, where we tie up for the night, keeping our berths on 
the steamer, the Hotel being full. 

We all walked up to the Hotel, past a fine orange grove, 
which has made Enterprise oranges famous. The clerk at the 
desk had oranges for sale, and we all put pockets and shawls 
into service and marched back to the boat staggering under our 
load of yellow fruit. At Toccoa, on the mountain summits of 
North-eastern Georgia, where these words happen to be written, 
beside a roaring pine lire, the last two specimens of this golden 
spoil adorn the rough table of the Lecroy Hotel. 

At six o'clock on Sunday morning, March 15th, we begin our 
journe}^ down the St. Johns. This was a Sunday long to be 
remembered — it should have for all of us the brightest Golden 
Number in the Calendar. We said that Saturday, when we 
sailed up the river, was the loveliest day that could be found in 
any clime or country, but then this Sunday had not dawned. 
When its sunset found us in the broad waters of the river 
above Pilatka, we unanimously resolved that the Sundays of 
all ages and climes must yield the palm to our Palm Sunday on 
the St. Johns. Though not strictly Palm Sunday by the calen- 
dar, it was so in fact for us, and we will have two Palm Sun- 
days in this 3^ear's calendar. 

When breakfast was disposed of, the travellers arranged 



ST. JOHNS RIYER. 53 



themselves in groups on the decks at either end of the boat 
fur the sober enjoyment suited to the day. At Mellonville we 
took up Mr. Lamborn, who had spent the night there and had 
taken a morning's scamper on horseback through Sanford, and 
was thus ready to furnish us with fresh and reliable information 
as to the progress of improvement in that region. By this and 
his graphic accounts of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, 
of which he is the Vice President, he contributed much to the 
pleasure of the day. 

Soon we entered again within the green walls of the river, 
and then sailed dreamily along all day. We are tempted to 
make another vain effort to retain by description for others, 
some picture of the loveliness of a day on the upper St. Johns, 
but the repetition would have all the sameness of the stream 
itself, and would not be saved from monotony, as the river is 
by its ever-changing beauty. Although we could not go to 
church, there was ample space, and full inspiration for worship 
in the lofty aisles and verdant arches through which we swept 
all day in the soft light of a Florida Sunday. 

One grateful fact should be noted. The Yankee before men- 
tioned, truer to the traditions of his locality than to the precepts 
of humanity, put away his blunderbuss, and left the alligators 
to repose upon their " slides" with a gravity of demeanor suited 
to the day. This exemplary observance of the Sabbath on his 
part, was hailed with great satisfaction by the ladies, some of 
whom sat spell-bound for hours, peering into the green borders 
7 



54 ST. JOHNS ElVER. 



in search of sleeping reptiles, announcing their discoveries with 
a zeal that had a tendency to disturb the reveries of those who 
were entranced by the" beaut}^ of the other features of the 
river. 

"We arrived at Pilatka about seven in the evening, and re- 
mained there for the night. Some sought the Hotel, but found 
no room, and after a pleasant evening on the boat, we turned 
into our quarters for an early start in the morning. 

Directly opposite, to Pilatka is the finest orange grove in 
Florida. Although the boat was to leave at seven o'clock, an 
enterprising gentleman of the party forsook his berth at half- 
past five, and having roused two ladies, went into the town to 
wake up a boatman. At six o'clock the three were sailing 
across thej'iver in the light of a morning worthy to follow such 
a Sunday, and soon they were actually gathering oranges with 
their own hands from the trees. They came back loaded with 
fruit, as the spies of Moses came from Eschol bearing the grapes 
from the promised land. They stopped at a beautiful place on 
the Pilatka side of the river, formerly the residence of Judge 
Bronson, late U. S. District Judge of Florida, and were again 
upon the deck of the Starlight just as she was ready to move. 

At ten o'clock, we landed at Tocoi, the terminus of the 
famous railroad from the St. Johns to St. Augustine. Here we 
were destined to spend four hours — not by reason of any acci- 
dental delay, but by a regular arrangement prompted by prudent 
foresight on the part of the Railroad Company. The plan is to 



ST. JOHNS RIVEK. 55 



converge all the boats plying on the river up and down, during 
the first half of the day, and discharge their passengers and 
their baggage from each boat upon the desolate sands, until they 
accumulate sufficiently to fill up all the cars and cattle vans be- 
longing to the company, and then move them in a body by mule 
power, like a caravan of the desert. 

Tocoi has this advantage over many cities of the world — that 
as A^ou stand upon the dock 3^ou can obtain a complete view of 
all its buildings, public and private. We will therefore furnish 
a full inventory of them. On the left of the main and only 
street stand the two hotels — the first a two story building of 
boards, combining the uses of a hotel, a railroad depot, and the 
company's offices — -the other a one story structure of similar 
architecture, with a neat vine covered porch, standing about a 
hundred yards up the street, and commended most lustily by a 
colored gentleman as the best house in the place. On the other 
side of the street stands a tumble down old shed, used perhaps 
for a freight house, and the ghastly skeleton of a defunct dummy 
engine, which was once put in use on the road, until it was 
found that steam was too stimulating for the nerves of the an- 
cient President and employes of the road, and that dangerous 
mode of locomotion was abandoned, and the machine was 
allowed to rust by the roadside as a warning against the use of 
new-fangled Yankee inventions. These are the structures which 
compose the City of Tocoi. But we cannot forget to add that 
we could see through the woods, hard by, some glimpses of two 



56 ST. JOHNS KIVER. 



other \yhite houses, which were soon to cause a happy change in 
our impressions, and to make Tocoi one of the brighest spots on 
the St. Johns. 

As we marched up the landnig, some acquaintances on the 
boat shouted after us their doleful congratulations upon the 
prospect of four hours on the platform "waiting for the wagon," 
but we went bravely and grimly to our fate. The ladies planted 
themselves in a shady spot along the edge of the platform and 
went stubbornly to work to kill four hours, in the style of quiet 
determination peculiar to the gentler sex. The gentlemen, less 
heroic, after exhausting all the resources of the city, finding no 
bar for refreshment — no road fit for running a race — no boy to 
shine their boots — no papers of this or any other morning — and 
being mostly too heavy or lazy to play leap-frog — betook them- 
selves to the last resort of small boys at a recess — namel}^, 
pitching pennies. This diversion proved a great success, espe- 
cially to Mr. Bishop, who " raked the pool." 

But just as these resources were becoming exhausted, a won- 
derful change came over our destinies at Tocoi — a change which 
seemed magical as that produced by the slipper of Cinderella. 
A gentleman appeared and very politely invited the whole party 
to his house. We could scarcely understand the meaning of 
such a summons, under the circumstances, but it was soon ex- 
plained that the gentleman was Captain Westcott, late of the 
U. S. Navy, brother of Dr. Westcott, the President of the St. 
Augustine Railroad Compan}^, and that the houses of which we 



ST. JOHNS EIVKR. 57 



had seen glimpses through the trees, were occupied by them. 
One the gentlemen of the party was acquainted with the Captain 
and had called on him, which resulted in his courteous invita- 
tion. So we walked through the grove to a gate, which admit- 
ted us to a well kept garden, enclosing a very plain one story 
building of boards with a pleasant vine clad porch, and a door 
hospitably open, in which stood a lady waiting to receive us. 
The first glance revealed to us an abode of taste and cultivation 
— an oasis in the desert of Tocoi. The lady was Miss West- 
cott, the sister of the two gentlemen mentioned, and also of Mr. 
James D. Westcott, formerly Senator from Florida. The house 
was that of Dr. Westcott, the President of the road. We 
were ushered into a room opening upon the piazza, with a fine 
view of the river through a grove of oaks. It was utterly plain 
— without a touch of architectural ornament — but in every line 
and feature was that indescribable air of refinement and taste 
which marks the dwelling of the cultured woman wherever it 
may be found. Pictures, piano, books, music, flowers, orna- 
ments — these arranged with the grace that follows the hand of 
a lady into whatever wilderness she may be led, transformed 
this Tocoi cabin into a genuine Southern home. Here we spent 
one of our dreaded hours in pleasant conversation about mutual 
friends, and the war scenes in Florida, of which Miss Westcott, 
who lived in the State during the war, had many things to tell. 
Then we went over to the house of Captain Westcott through 
beds of flowers bordered with pine cones, and showing the 



58 ST, JOHNS KIVEK. 



same delicate touches of taste that adorned the house. Mrs. 
"Westcott welcomed us to the ample piazza in the shadow of a 
magnificent grove of oaks and magnolias, sloping to the river. 
Then came music, Mrs. W. beuig a very fine singer, and then 
a walk over the lawn to some fine orange trees near the river, 
from which all the part}^ were invited to pluck at pleasure — a 
privilege of which we availed ourselves with the glee of child- 
ren and the zest of novices. The oranges were wild, however, 
and the next thing in order was to carr}^ them to the house 
and have them made into orangeade, which was soon served to 
us by a little Hebe in ebony, dressed in emerald green, assisted 
by a wee little black and tan terrier, which seemed to be wild 
with delight at seeing such a goodh^ company break the accus- 
tomed solitude of the premises. B}" this time we began to 
wonder why the railroad company should nuike such insane 
haste to get us away from Tocoi. We had scarcely time to 
visit the " big trees," to which Miss Westcott and her neice. 
Miss Miller, offered to conduct us. But determined to miss 
nothing of this unexpected pleasure, we made up a party for a 
walk through the woods. We had no knowledge of what or 
where the big trees were, but we knew that a stroll through a 
Florida forest with two agreeable ladies on that charming day, 
could not fail to be enjo3'ed. It was enjoyed to the utmost, and 
yet it was little, compared with the scene which we found at the 
end of our walk — the lig trees which we came to visit. But 
since this designation gives no definite notion of the scene of 



ST. JOHNS RITER. 



59 



which they formed but one marked feature, it is necessary to 
describe it in some detail. Passing out from the woods we 
come into a tract of some thirty acres still finely wooded, not 
indiscriminately as in the natural forest that surrounds it, but 
with noble oaks and magnolias arranged in majestic groups, 
with vistas opening upon the broad river. The soil shows 
traces of a fine lawn, long neglected, and strewn with leaves and 
branches where lying they fell. But at first view no vestige of 
a human dwelling appears. We Avalk to the bluff and find a 
bold rounded promontory, commanding one of the finest views 
on the river. Some traces of ruined steps lead to a smooth beach 
of white sand at the foot, and some ragged piles still standing 
in the stream, point out the line of a dock that once led to a 
boat house. On a sunny point to the left jutting out into the 
river, stands a large orange grove evidently suffering from want 
of care. 

" O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear, 
A sense of mystery, the spirit daunted." 

Turning back from the bank we look more closely for some 
explanation of the " sense of mystery" that hangs over the 
scene. Almost in the centre of the space stand the " big trees." 
One is a noble oak, fairly embraced and interwound with the 
folds of a gigantic vine, whose root is almost as large as the 
tree itself, and whose branches lock its topmost limbs in their 
coils. The other is the largest oak in Florida— it seems like 



60 ST. JOHNS RIVER 



three huge oaks locked in a close embrace — four ladies standing 
around its trunk could not touch each other's hands. It required, 
thirty paces to walk close around it, and they must be made 
with care in order to step over its great knarled roots, and its 
huge branches parting from the trunk not far from the ground, 
spread straight and far over the lawn, hung with deep funereal 
Avreaths of moss as if in mourning for those who had once 
sported in its shade — for this was the home of Col. Richard 
Floyd. 

"Here groups of merry children played, 

" Here youths and maidens dreaming strayed." 

Just back of the " big trees." in the centre of the lawn, 
stands a tottering old summer house, — a crumbling remnant of 
an ample fire-place, — and some scraps of bricks and mortsir, 
sole relics of the house which was once the centre of this lovely 
scene, and the abode of wealth and happiness. In that house 
Miss Wescott told us, she had spent some of the happiest days 
of her life. This is the story of its downfall as she related it on 
the spot. Col. Floyd, a man of wealth and literary and musical 
tastes lived here until the opening of the war. Then, being an 
enthusiastic advocate of secession, he deserted the house as it 
stood, and leaving the property, embracing a tract of 1200 
acres in the care of a faithful old slave named March, he went 
to take his part in the strife, and died before its close. 

Old March stood loyally by the homestead. The Union lines 
soon embraced it, — the blast of war swept over it. There was 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. f)l 



no master to defend, or mistress to shield it by her presence. 
It was a waif — the spoil alike of friend and foe. Piece by piece 
it vanished. It was not consumed by fire or demolished by 
shells, but simply melted and crumbled away until its site is 
scarcely marked upon the soil. AVhen the Union troops were 
about to occupy it, old March gathered up tlie silver and most 
portable articles of value, and buried them near the house, and 
mounted guard over the grave. When the soldiers came he 
saw one poking his bayonet suspiciously about his treasures, 
and at midnight he stole to the spot, and digging them out, 
carried them to the woods and buried them anew in a secluded 
place, which he never revealed until the son of his dead master 
returned, " when the cruel war was over,'" and then he guided 
him to the woods and surrendered his trust. He was just in 
time to save them, for the same prying soldier found the soft 
spot the next day and eagerly dug for the expected spoil, only 
to find that he was too late. And as a sequel to the storv, we 
learned that within the last six mouths poor old Marcli. whose 
only failing, in advancing years, was taking a drop too much, got 
into a quarrel with another man and was shot dead. 

And now within a week the whole Floyd estate was sold by 
the widow to a speculator for $4,500, and the fine river fi-ont 
is divided into lots for sale. The homestead site, with the big 
tree, is in the market for $8,000. If it shall again ring with 
the music of a new home, and be the abode of those who can 
enjoy it in more fortunate and peaceful times, they will have 

8 



G2 



ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



one of the loveliest spots on this beautiful river, and they should 
erect on the site of that buried treasure a monument in memory 
of faithful old March. As we heard this history, it seemed 
strange and sad indeed that the bitter surges of our great war 
should have spread so far as to engulf this secluded home down 
in the solitude of the St. Johns. 

Miss Westcott told us that within a few months she had 
talven Mr. Bryant to see the "big trees," and told him their 
melancholy story. It seemed to us that he must have found a 
poem there, — The Dirge of the House of Floyd. 

Impressed with the sad beauty of the "big trees" and their 
history, we walked along the bank of the river and over an old 
Indian mound to the house of our kind host — and then to the 
rough hotel at Tocoi Landing. Here, the primitive dinner, with 
pine boards for table and boxes for seats, and the bustle of 
preparation for our caravan journey, made so sharp a contrast 
to our experience for the last two hours, that we could scarcely 
believe it had not been all a dream. Cinderella's slipper was 
gone. We were weary travellers again, " waiting for the 
wagon" at Tocoi. At two o'clock the wagons came — three old 
street cars, each drawn by two horses or mules, tandem. In 
these we rushed with frantic haste, for there were too many 
travellers -for the seats. We did not allow the old load time 
to get out, but piled promiscuously in. Goers and comers with 
their small traps seemed inextricably mixed. But at last they 
slioolv themselves apart, and onward we crawled across the strip 



ST. JOHNS KIVER. Go 



of sand and swamp that separates the St. Jolins from the 
Atlantic. Certainly for those who have travelled fifteen hun- 
dred miles in a palace car, this Railroad train from Tocoi is a 
striking picture. Three horse-cars packed within awd without, 
and a luggage van following — the crowd upon the top of the 
car shielded with umbrellas, toiling on over wooden rails dui'ing 
a three hours' journey of fifteen miles, through pine forests, 
magnolia swamps and groves of wild oranges. 

In this land of railroads, this road is unique. It naturally 
forms a favorite subject of conversation to beguile the journey. 
Dr. Westcott, the President, plants himself on a chair in front 
of the car and enters into the subject heartily. He meets every 
objection with decisive arguments to show that this mode of 
locomotion is not only the sole mode possilile for this region, 
but ought to be generally introduced throughout the country. 
He demonstrates that the Pennsylvania Railroad is an anti(iua- 
ted concern, and when we thought we had cornered him on the 
subject of fares, he made his finest stroke of argument, by as- 
serting that this was the cheapest road in the countrv, for the 
reason that on the best N"orthern road you can take, 3'ou must 
pay about three dollars for three hours' travel, whereas, here, he 
carries us three hours for two dollars, and often throws in an 
extra hour without further charge. 

We have traveled in our trip on all sorts of roads, sometimes 
by regular and often by special trains — but here we have both 
combined, for it is in everv sense a special and peculiar train. 



64 



ST. JOHXS KIVEK. 



and it is also ihorouglily regailar, embracing tlae entire rolling 
and walking stock of the company, vibrating with solemn regu- 
larity between the onl}^ stations of the road. At the end of 
three hours the train stops. No brakes are needed, and no 
shock is experienced. No motive power is under better control 
than that of the Tocoi Railroad. No persuasion is needed to 
bring the Florida mule to a stand-still. The end of the rail- 
road is reached, but not the end of the journey. It is against 
the city ordinances to run trains through the streets of St. 
Augustine witli mule power. So about a mile from the town 
we are unpacked Irom the horse cars and repacked into omni- 
buses, and soon deposited at tlie St. Augustine Hotel. 



^T. ^y\uqU^TIJME. 



''^NYUR party was so thoroughly disintograted at St. 
^ VClsyp Augustine, that it is scarcely possible to relate any 
-^^=^^^^^^^ incidents of our common experience, and as this 
record is not designed to form a part of any Florida Hand-book, 
it is not within its purpose to enter into details of the wonders 
of the old town, or any directions for invalids. Although we 
had telegraphed a week in advance to the St. Augustine Hotel 
inquiring if thej^ could accommodate us, and had received an 
affirmative reply, we found on our arrival that they had not a 
room in the house. Their idea of accommodation was to dis- 
tribute us promiscuously around the town within a circuit of 
half a mile. We soon found that our only motto must be, every 
man and wife for themselves, and our little company for the 
first time disbanded, and hunted for lodgings in couples. Some 
found refuge in the Florida House, where all would have been 
welcomed if we had advised them in time. Some found pleas- 



66 ST. AUGUSTINE. 



ant boarding houses, and some stayed at the St. Augustine. Yet 
all enjoyed St. Augustine, and if it were permissible to indulge 
in the relation of certain individual experiences, we could fill 
many pages with our recollections of this quaint old city, which 
bears in its streets, its houses, its old fort and gatewa}^, in the 
old church of St Joseph, whose bell tolls almost daily for some 
one dead, and in the swarthy faces of many of its people, the 
impress of a foreign power and the traces of an alien race. 

But we will strictly confine this chronicle to its simple pur- 
pose as a record of the incidents of travel common to our party, 
and this brings us to the parapets of old Port San Marco at 4 
P.M., March 17th, where we assembled to liear a concert by a 
fine military band — a select ticket concert, which brought 
together a large assemblage of the best visitors and citizens. 
St Patrick's Day at our American San Marco ! Looking down 
upon the old town which was fought for with such fierce rivalry 
by vSpaniard and Huguenot, Indian and British buccaneer, 
before the landing of the Pilgrims ; looking westward upon 
the great pine forests which shut off this little city on a 
sand bar ; from the vast country to wliich it has at last been 
permanently bound ; looking Eastward across :i, long line 
of breakers upon the same ocean upon which the savages 
descried the ships of Don Pedro Menandez coming from 
the old world to found St. Augustine about 300 years ago ; 
standing on the roof of what is claimed to be an old dungeon 
of the Inquisition ; reading the crumbling inscriptions carved 



ST. AUGUSTINE. 67 



by the Spaniards on these old walls, now mounted with Union 
cannon ; listening to wild tales of former strife and persecution 
and to music from a U. S. Military band ; greeting Northern 
friends and Southern citizens in this strange winter watering 
place ; and basking in the softest summer sun. and fanned by 
cooling breezes from the sea, — surely this forms a striking con- 
trast to the St. Patrick's day of our common life, usually marked 
only by a Broad Street procession of the friendly sons of St. 
Patrick, tramping to the piping of a March wind. 

We left St. Augustine on Wednesday, March 18th, at 11 
A.M., for Jacksonville. P>eautiful and strange as it is, we do 
not wish to stay. It may be very well to Iiave the mercury at 
90° in March, tempered by cool sea breezes, but we really begin 
to wish that we could be forced on turning some corner to snatch 
at our hats to save them from being carried off by one of our 
homely March blusters. 

Roses are very pretty in March, but then they are just as 
pretty and perhaps more fragrant in June. And we suspect 
that when our grass is greenest and our flowers brightest, a few 
weeks hence, this old seaside city will find its beauty faded, 
and its narrow streets quite wide enough for all who want to 
use them. Besides, there was to our fancy, a suggestion of dis- 
ease and death about the place. We could not avoid thinking 
that but for invalids the place would scarcely exist, or would be 
cut off from the woi'ld by its impassable inlet on the east, and 
the Tocoi railroad on the west. And moreover, we were sad- 



68 ST. AUGUSTINE. 



dened by the information we received at Tocoi of the death of 
Mr. Philip J. Ryall, a Jerseyraan, well known to most of us, 
and also one of the most estimable and useful citizens of St. 
Augustine, where he had resided for several years. We found 
him lying dead at his beautiful house, and our good friends, Dr. 
Conover and his wife, mourning the loss of the husband of their 
only daughter. And as wo passed the Cathedral on our arrival, 
its bell was tolling for the dead, and a funeral train was moving 
through its door. Again, as we rode to the depot for our home- 
ward journe}^, a dead soldier was borne upon a gun carriage, 
wrapped in the folds of the Union Flag, on his journey to his 
final home. So we creep away from St. Augustine in the same 
old horse cars, and soon, after kind advices from Miss Westcott, 
who brought to the depot some tender little orange trees of her 
own planting, to be raised at the North in memory of Tocoi, we 
are again afloat on the St. Johns. 

Before turning Northward we must indulge in an episode, 
and relate a romance of Fort San Marco. That it is a true stor}^ 
of real life, is rendered certain by the fact that it was told by a 
very intelligent gentleman, whose ancestors were old Spanish 
residents of St. Augustine, to a reliable lady of our company, 
who related it to the veracious compiler of this history, who 
tells the tale as told to him. 



ST. AUGUSTINE. 



69 



THE ROMANCE OF SAN MARCO. 

" Once upon a time," the date of these events being unknown 
Commodore Hawkins fell into a quarrel with another gentle- 
man residing at St. Augustine, which resulted in a duel. They 
fought first with swords and were both wounded, but their wrath 
and honor were not satisfied, and they fought again with pistols. 
Com. Hawkins had determined to kill his antagonist, and being 
a dead shot, resolved to await his enemy's fire, and in case he 
was not fatally disabled, to shoot him with deliberate aim. At 
the first fire the Commodore was shot through one leg, but steady- 
ing himself on the other, he aimed his pistol at the heart of his 
opponent and fired. It was without effect and Hawkins fell 
disabled. But he protested to his second, as he lay, that his 
aim had been true and that his antagonist must have been in 
some manner mailed against the shot. He insisted on an exam- 
ination on the spot. The other second recognizing the justice 
of this demand under the code of honor, required that his prin- 
cipal should submit to it. The inspection took place and re- 
vealed three folds of heavy black silk wrapped about the body, 
and a red spot directly over the heart, showing how true to its 
mark the Commodore's ball had sped. The smooth silk had 
turned it from its fatal course. The wounded Commodore, 
furious with rage at being balked of his revenge in this cowardly 
fashion, was carried to his house in St. Augustine. Directly 



70 ST. augustinp:. 



across one of its narrow streets dwelt his enemy. As soon as 
his wonnd was dressed and his attendants had left him, he 
crawled to the window wiih liis rifle and awaited the appearance 
of his foe ; soon he saw him taice his seat at the window with 
his wife, and resting his weapon on the window, he shot him 
dead. He then sent word to the authorities and surrendered 
himself to such justice as might be meted out for such a deed 
in those chivalrous days. He was imprisoned in the old Fort, 
in the dungeon now shown to visitors on the left of the entrance. 
The popular voice applauded his exploit, especially that of 
tlie ladies of the town. Why should such a dastard live? 
And whv should a gentleman be punished for vindicating his 
own honor, and the highest principles of chivalry? So the 
Commodore remained in prison, but no indictment could be ob- 
tained against him. But this was a poor tribute to the champ- 
ion of the manly code of the duello, and it was resolved to 
bestow upon him a mark of honor worthy of his prowess. In 
pursuance of this design, the ladies of the city arranged to give 
him a prison serenade, and on a beautiful evening they assem- 
bled on the sea wall, close under the walls of his dungeon, and 
beguiled his weary hours by their music. The most beautiful 
girl and best singer among them, sang " The Captive'' in the 
most melodious strain. It bound him with new fetters, and the 
prisoner was captivated in a double sense. He begged to l)e 
informed the name of his sweet consoler, but she was invisible 
to him, and the ladies had insisted on a strict incog. He then 



ST. AUGUSTINE. 



71 



requested to be allowed to give a ball in his prison quarters, 
which was accorded as a reasonable relaxation for such a high- 
toned criminal. He invited all the ladies of the place, including 
the sweet singer. He received his guests in state and did the 
honors in princely style. After all the guests were assembled, 
he approached his lovely serenader and thanked her for her 
song. She blushed, expressed surprise and made the proper 
protestations— but he assured her that he could not forget the 
tones of such a voice, borne to him through prison bars. Such 
tender words, breathing true spirit of the fine old days of chiv- 
alry, could not be resisted, and the lady in turn became a cap- 
tive to the Commodore. They were married in the prison m 
his cell. Thus did justice at last overtake the Commodore. It 
must be assumed that it was considered to be the proper retri- 
bution for his feat of arms, for he was soon released from con- 
finement, ' and they lived liappy ever after.' '' 



At the station at St. Augustine we were compelled to leave 
a very important portion of our party — Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, 
who for some mysterious reason, determined to desert at this 
point. They gave no plausible excuse, but simply remained 
behind, enamored of the Southern charms, and determined to 
wander at will along the Gulf coast until driven Northward by 
the heats of Summer. 

Somewhere amidst tlie mountains of North Carolina, we re- 



ceived from them a telegram, couched in insane and unintelligi- 
ble language, saying, as nearly as we could make it out, that they 
would come North in about six weeks, and asking us to wait for 
them at Petersburg. 




]-|o|MEWy\F(D ^OUJMD. 



^c^xtN our arrival at Jacksonville in the evening of 
r^ -J^Cfe/p March 18th, we found special invitations from the 
^*^-=^S>0 oflficers of the Jacksonville, Pensacola & Mobile 
Railroad and the Florida Central, for the party to visit Talla- 
hassee. Col. Walker, of the former Company, and Col. Papy, 
of the latter, were awaiting us at the St, James, and were most 
kind and urgenr, in their appeals that we should so far extend 
our trip as to go with them to the Capital, assuring us that all 
preparations were made to take us to Tallahassee and to give 
us a cordial reception. But the time for turning Northward had 
come, and we were obliged to decline. 

We found the St. James crowded with guests, so much so that 
some of the party were compelled to seek lodgings in neighbor- 
ing houses. In one of these we found a tall thin man with along 
beard, the master of the house, who provided kindly for our com- 
fort, and then introduced himself as Mr. Robinson, which name 



74 HOMKWARD BOUND. 



conveyed little information. But when he added the name of 
Solon, we recognized the old Agricultural corespondent of the 
Tribune, and found that he had been living in Jacksonville for 
seven years. He proved to be a very entertaining host, and gave 
us some graphic sketches of life in Florida and the changes that 
have occurred during the past few years. We heard from others 
a story which he did not tell. Some years ago a robber came 
to enter his house in the middle of the night, and was heard by 
some of the famil}^, working at one of the outside doors. Old 
Solon got up and seized his ritle, and stole quietly down. He 
stood at the door and listened — only the thin pine panel sepa- 
rating him from the burglar, who was engaged in boring a hole 
near the lock. He waited quietl}^ till the auger came through 
and was withdrawn, and still waited till the robber began to bore 
another hole. Then he placed the muzzle of his gun directly 
over the hole and fired. When he opened the door the man 
was gone, but in the morning his dead body was found in the 

woods near by. 

We spent Thursday in Jacksonville, in preparations for our 

homeward course. 

At our first visit some of the party had called upon Governor 

Hart, whose wife is the sister of a Newark lady. He was in 

ill health, but received us very cordially, and gave us some vivid 

sketches of life in Florida during the war. But his life was not 

to be as long as our trip up the river, for on our return we found 

him dead, and the city engaged in preparation for a State funeral. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 



75 



During the day we dispersed tlirough this busy, Yankee- 
looking city, purchasing curiosities, visiting the Colored Normal 
School— the Free School for Whites— the new Church which 
Bishop Young is building — and other objects of interest, and 
preparing for life upon the rail again. 

In the evening there was a grand hop at the St. James, with 
all the features of our Summer life at Long Branch and Sara- 
toga. 

On Friday, March 20, at eight o'clock, we found ourselves 
once more in our familiar quarters in the car. We returned to 
it with great pleasure, for throughout the entire trip our travel- 
ing home has been the scene of the most genuine enjoyment. 
Our long absence had made us homesick, and we greeted Charles 
and Ben with great enthusiasm. 

Our Commissary entered upon his duties with renewed vigor, 
and, with the advantage of the markets of Jacksonville, he pro- 
vided for us a dinner of such unusual excellence, that the whole 
party tendered him a special vote of thanks. Perhaps our 
gratitude was heightened by the memory of the meals we en 
dured upon the Starlight. 

And now we rolled away Northward, not over the road by 
which we had come, but diverging toward the West through 
Georgia, by Albany, Macon and Atlanta. We reverted natu- 
rally to our old employments and the regular diversions of car- 
life, with little of external interest to diversify the day. 

As we crossed river after river, one of the ladies noted down 



76 HOMKWARD BOUND. 



their curious Indian names, which may be recorded as a lesson 
in geoo;raphy. They were, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Satilla, 
Suwanee, Alapaha, Ocopilco, Withlacoochee, Piscola, Ouacilla, 
Oklocknee, and Thronateeska, or Flint River. 

As we passed again the Suwanee, Ben left his culinary duties 
and sang the old song, '' Way down on the Suwanee River/' in 
his best style. As we rolled through the quiet villages of that 
remote region, our magnificent eciuipment caused great excite- 
ment among the sleepy natives. At one way station a gentle- 
man appeared and made a formal presentation of flowers to the 
ladies, which was suitably acknowledged. 

It should not be forgotton that Col. Screven joined us on the 
way and accompanied us to Albany — renewing the kind atten- 
tions he had lavished on us at Savannah. Our ride extended 
far into the night, and hour after hour we passed through the 
vast pine forests — or turpenthie farms as they are called, some 
of them on Are. 

We reached Albany at midnight, and were to leave at one in 
the afternoon. Before that hour, we were waited on by Col. 
Teft, the founder of the city forty years ago, and also by Mr. 
Warren, Col. Bacon, and Gen. Davis, who were very courteous 
in tendering__us the hospitalities of the place. We could only 
avail ourselves of their kindness by taking an hour's drive 
through the city. One lady secured a substantial token of the 
kindness of the gentlemen of Albany. She has a passion for 
chairs, and observing specimens of the straight-backed, deer- 



skin-seated affairs manuaictured in the negro cabins of that 
vicinity, she coveted one so earnestl}^ that a legal gentleman in 
the carriage insisted on stopping at liis office, from which he 
brought an ancient chair of the desired pattern, with a, well- 
worn deer-skin seat, and presented it to the lady, who seemed 
delighted with her prize. Sie planted it in a corner of the car, 
and occupied it as her special throne for the rest of the trip. 
She carried it home, and it is understood that she intends to 
pass it down to posterity as a family heir loom. 

At the station at Albany we parted with Col. Screven and 
Mr. Haines, with the most cordial thanks of all the party ibr 
their constant courtesy and attention. 

The chief object of interest on the way to Macon was Ander- 
sonville, the horrible prison of Northern soldiers during the war. 
The railroad runs close by the spot made so famous by suffer- 
ing. The old stockades are still standing in full sight from the 
car window. It seems strange that such ghastly mementoes 
should not have been long ago obliterated. But there they 
stand, ten years after the war, to send a shudder through every 
passer-by wlio can remember the time when they were the scene 
of such unutterable miseries. 

At four o'clock we arrived at Brown's Hotel, Macon, where 
we were to spend a quiet Sunday. And here at last we had a 
rainy day— an event quite unusual in our trip. Macon deserves 
a full description, but now that our Hices are turned homeward, 
this chronicle— already drawn out far beyond its design— must 
10 



78 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



be ooly a brief record of the several stages of our journey. 
One thing, however, must be mentioned. Col. W. B. Johnson, 
the' Vice-President of the Georgia Central Railroad Company, 
invited the whole party to call at his house, and in the afternoon 
we drove there. It is situated on the fine elevation overlooking 
the city, and is by all means the finest private residence we have 
seen south of "Washington. In fact there are few finer in the 
country. .. 

Monday, March 23, at eight o'cloclf we left Macon for Atlanta. 
Mrs. Bacon found some friends in the train who were invited 
to occupy our car — a form of hospitality which has proved 
throughout the trip a very pleasant feature of our migratory 
life. The latch-string is always out, though our house is mov- 
ing at the rate of twenty miles an hour. These visitors proved 
particularl}^ interesting. They were Mr. and Mrs. Thomas 
Mellor and Miss Sliarp, of Philadelphia — Mrs. Mellor being the 
first cousin of John Bright. We reached Atlanta in the after- 
noon, but the car rolled into the vast depot in the heart of the 
city, and remained only long enough to secure a new locomotive 
to carry us one hundred miles further on the new air-line rail- 
road to Toccoa, a station in the midst of the fine scenery of North- 
ern Georgia. 

We remained at Atlanta about an hour — long enough to get 
letters, and to feel something of the spirit of city life, from 
which we had been cut off so long. For Atlanta — only ten 
years ago laid waste by war — is now the busiest and most pros- 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 79 



perous city south of Baltimore. We resisted the temptation 
of the fine hotel, in order to accept the kind offer of Colonel 
Johnson to send us to Toccoa for the night, so that we might 
visit the Falls in the morning. 

We arrive'd about ten o'clock after a moonlight ride through 
some of the finest scenery of the South. Colonel Sage, one of 
the chief officers of the new road, was in charge of our train, 
and b}^ his kind attentit)ns added still more to our obligations 
to all connected with the many lines of railroad over which we 
have passed. 

Toccoa is scarcely a year old. It has not even a railroad 
depot. It consists of the Lecroy House and a few cottages. 
It owes its existence to the fact that it is the nearest point to 
the Falls. It must be about equal to Tocoi in population. But 
a greater contrast in all physical characteristics, can scarcely be 
imagined, than that between Toccoa and Tocoi. One lies bask- 
ing in the sun upon the sandy shores of the St. Johns, shaded 
with live oaks and Orange trees, sleepily attending to the trans- 
fer of passengers from the boats to the one horse railroad to St. 
Augustine. The other stands high upon the summit of a moun 
tain range, sturdily clearing the forests, and blasting tlie rocks, to 
form a pathway for a great through railroad from North to 
South. At Tocoi you may travel for miles without finding any 
hill but an Indian Mound. At Toccoa, Colonel Sage backed our 
train a mile or two southward in the morning, and left us stand 
ing, as if suspended in mid-air, on a narrow trestle-work, so liigh 



80 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



that it made us shudder lest the whole train should topple into 
the valley below. 

The party will preserve the memory of the Lecroy House, 
without full description. The car stopped in front of it, and as 
we approaclied we could see the dim outlines of a large plain 
wooden building, like a rough country meeting-house — lighted 
up by the glare of a huge wood fire on a hearth, shining through 
the open door. The proprietor had been warned of our arrival, 
and had made preparations to the extent of his ability. But 
the house throughout was built of rough boards, and all its ap- 
pointments were of the most primitive description. And its 
rooms, such as they were, were only sufficient for half the part3^ 
So the ladies took possession of the car, to the total exclusion 
of the gentlemen, who turned into the bunks of the Lecroy 
House, where the good people did their best to provide for 
them. 

In the morning we piled the party into some mountain wagons, 
and bumped over four miles of rough road, to see the famous falls, 
which are very fine — but a waterfall is a very poor thing to de- 
scribe. The reason we took such a jolting ride to get to it was 
because it was a waterfall — which, more than any other natural 
object, must be seen to be appreciated. 

They say they have another one much finer, twelve miles fur- 
ther, but they must mend their ways before they can beguile 
Northern tourists to visit it. We were content to take the glow- 
ing descriptions of the natives. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 81 



Returning from the Falls, we were soon upon our Eastward way 
through the wild mountain country which seems to make this new 
road one endless succession of deep cuts and heavy fills — with 
lofty trestle works spanning the lower valleys. 

We passed Currihee Mountain and saw the outline of Stone 
Mountain and Bald Mountain, from which region came strange 
rumors of avast convulsion of nature in actual operation. From 
the talk of the people at the stations and the reports of the local 
papers, it seemed as if some great cataclysm was taking place 
among the mountains of North Carolina. They told us that 
scientific men and newspaper reporters were flocking there 
from all directions, and they rubbed their hands with glee at 
the thought of the prospect of a first-class sensation in that dull 
region — a veritable Vesuvius to which visitors would crowd 
from all parts of the civilized world. Alas ! for the vanity of 
human wishes! The last rumbles of the earthquake died away 
as we rolled on to the level country, and we have heard no more 
of it. Tlie dwellers in that quiet valley will remain undisturbed 
in their seclusion. 

We spent an hour at Spartansburg where the President of 
Wofford College called upon us, and the rival editors of the 
town papers interviewed us and, vied with each other in securing 
the most reliable and sensational items for their next week's 
issue. 

We arrived at Charlotte at 9:30 and spent a comfortable 
night at the Central Hotel. 



82 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



Wednesday, March 25, we left Charlotte at an early hour 
for a day's journey to Raleigh. About 2 o'clock we reached a 
station called Company's Shops, from the foct tliat the whole 
place is devoted to the purposes of the railroad and all its 
inhabitants connected with railroad service. 

The officers of the Company had been warned of our arrival, 
and directed to provide us witli a locomotive and a clear road to 
Raleigh. But by some error they had mistaken the day, as 
they showed us by a special time-table printed for the occasion, 
but providing for Thursday instead of Wednesday. Here was 
a dead-lock. For, smoothly as we have run for thousands of 
miles over scores of lines, we must have a clear path and motive 
power provided in advance. And here we were without either. 
There was no help for it during the da}''. The construction 
trains were on the road and could not be warned of our coming. 
So we waited till working hours were over and then having 
secured a locomotive we were off at half past six for Raleigh. 
The officer in charge did all in his power to beguile the hours 
we were compelled to spend at the shops, and made us a present 
of the entire edition of special time-tables for Thursday, He 
justly remarked that he had no further use for them. It seems 
difficult to imagine a more useless and abortive production than 
a carefully devised time-table for a special train that passed over 
the road the day before. 

It should be mentioned, in order to do full justice to our 
special car, that at this point two of the ladies, having exhausted 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 83 



all the ordinary virtues and uses of that wonderful vehicle, 
determined to test its qualites as a travelling hospital. 

At Company's Shops while waiting for transportation the car 
was deserted by all but one lad}^, who wrapped herself up to 
enjoy a quiet chill, and by the time we were again in motion she 
was in the height of the fever which naturally followed. The dining 
room was devoted to her use and every other lady opened her 
treasures and produced an infallible remedy, and the sufferer 
was as well taken care of as in the best City Hospital. So that 
when we stopped in the Depot at Raleigh it was determined to 
leave her in the car for the night, with her husband as nurse, 
and Ben as door keeper and attendant. A luxurious bed was 
made, the blinds drawn down, and all appliances for the sick-room 
provided. Up to twelve o'clock at night the patient had for her 
lullaby the songs of the negroes just outside the car, engaged in 
heaving great blocks of ice from freight cars to the ice-house. 
And her husband sat in the adjoining room quietly writing this 
history, which accident will explain why he has omitted the 
graphic description of the Capital of North Carolina which would 
otherwise have adorned these pages. 

When the party assembled at the car in the morning, the pa- 
tient was still concealed behind the curtains, but was so much 
better that she was able to certify fully as to the advantages of 
the car as a curative establishment. But this did not seem 
to be entirely satis fiictory, for soon another lady claimed 
hospital privileges, and a pile of mattresses was spread for 



84 HOMEWAKD BOUND. 



her in another room, which she occupied in the most inter- 
esting manner until she also was entirely restored. Thus 
it was proved by ample experience that the capacities of 
our moving house are equal to all the requirements of health or 
sickness. If such experiments are to be tried, however, it would 
seem to be the fair thing tliat it should be done by ladies who 
have a husband apiece and not as in this instance by both the 
wives of one traveller. It adds unjustly to his domestic cares. 
It was only as to one of them that he promised to care for her 
in sickness and in health. However, he bore himself bravely 
and before we reached Kittrell Springs we stopped long enough 
to visit the tidy. New England-looking hotel, and to gain some 
notion of the mode of life at one of these sources of health. 
This made a very favorable impression. The country is beau- 
tiful, the air balmy and delightful, the hotel clean, the hosts 
attentive, and if we were to credit the assurances made on the 
advertisement, the properties of the water were equal to the 
ancient Bethesda. 

But our invalids were recovering — we were already bracing 
ourselves for a blast of our familiar Northern March wind, and 
we did not tarry long at Kittrell Springs. If they want to be- 
guile travellers in Florida who have become fiimiliar with the 
cadences of Oklawaha, Picolata, Volusia and Magnolia, they 
must provide their Springs with a more attractive name than 
" Kittrell." 

At a station called Ridgway we were rapturously greeted by 



HOMEWARD BOUND, 85 



a gentleman named J. L. Labiaux, formerly of Newark, but for 
many years past engaged in large agricultural enterprises in 
North Carolina. He sprang upon the train to ride with us as far as 
possible, anxious to hear all possible news from his old home, and 
to impart to us some of his enthusiasm for his new one. He dined 
with us in the car and gave us very interesting descriptions of 
his attempts at grape culture on a large scale, and especially of 
his extensive exportation of American grape stocks to France 
to be there grafted with French vines in order to avoid an insect 
which has proved fatal to the French vines, while the hardier 
American stocks have thus far escaped them. It seemed a 
curious fact that France might be compelled to depend on 
America for the very root and basis of her staple production. 

Desiring to vary our homeward route it was determined to 
pass by Richmond and Washington and occupy Petersburg 
and Baltimore instead. So, late in the evening of the '26th of 
March, we arrived at Petersburg after just four weeks of travel. . 

Our wonderful facilities for special trains enabled us to arrange 
to stay in Petersburg until 12:30, and to occupy the morning in 
driving over the old battle-fields and objects of interest so 
familiar to travellers. It is not the province of this chronicle 
to describe battle-fields, or to indulge in any patriotic memories. 
We visited the old war lines and were duly informed how the 
various bodies of troops were posted, and where the terrible 
mines were sprung, and how the last break was made through 
the rebel works which resulted in the speedy end of the war, 
11 



86 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



but these are not materials for this rapidly closing narrative, 
and it is probable that the most vivid as well as permanent im- 
pression made upon the minds of the party at Petersburg, was 
by the old ivy-clad ruin of Blandford Church, standing amidst 
its quiet graves, just as it stood before the tide of war dashed 
so near to its old walls and ebbed away again, leaving it 
quietly to settle into respectable and undisturbed decay — a ver- 
itable relic of antiquity in this modern country. 

But it is plain that the American mind is not in harmony with 
ruins. We do not know how to treat them — or rather how to 
let them alone. "We are unwilling to leave them to be gracefully 
draped with the mosses and mildews of time. We must con- 
secrate them by some public advertisement of their antiquity, 
so that the awed beholder shall be distinctly informed, " this is 
a venerable American ruin." On this principle some one has 
taken a paint-pot and brush and inscribed in large round letters 
on the inner wall of Blandford Church a string of weak verses 
written by Tyrone Power on the occasion of his visit here some 
thirty years ago. And there it glares upon the crumbling wall 
in hideous incongruity with the venerable features of the inter- 
esting old structure. May the hand of time be quickened to 
obliterate the words, or cover them with a veil of moss or ivy ! 

At 12.30 we turn Northward, on the way to Baltimore. 

At the Potomac, where other passengers in the train take the 
boat for Washington, we find a special locomotive with a zeal- 
ous officer in charge, who is to pick up our car and wheel us 



away to Baltimore. He seems to take special pride in the duty, 
and as we see the steamboat slowly puffing away from the 
dock, lie informs us that by the time she lands in Washington 
he will have us in Baltimore, informing us also of the marvel 
lous speed with which he had borne the body of Charles Sum- 
ner from Washington to New York a few days before, and as- 
suring us that we should make as good time to our supper at 
the Carrolton House as the great Statesman did to his grave. 
And he was as good as his word, for at 9.30 we were installed in 
the luxurious quarters of that first-class modern Hotel. 

It should be mentioned, however, that at this point the miss- 
ing husband of one of our party who liad been vaguely expected 
to appear upon the scene at some point on our journey, suddenly 
turned up. He was to join us at all the available points as we 
went Southward. He was looked for wistfully at Jacksonville, 
as we steamed away for the upper regions of the St. Johns, 
but after all he did not appear until 9.30 in the evening of March 
27th at Baltimore Depot, at which point he received the formal 
surrender of his wife and her "small traps" from the gentleman 
who had up to that time had them in his special charge. 

Monday, March 28th, 1874, is the last day of the thirty spent 
in this memorable excursion to Florida. 

At Philadelphia the break up is to begin. And so a group 
is gatliered in our familiar drawing room — the ladies produce 
their diaries — especially Miss Bacon, whose pencil has noted 
many of the fleeting incidents of the journey — and a general 



summary of the facts of so mucli of this history as is yet un- 
written, is made, in order that materials may exist for its com- 
pletion, if on our return to ordinary life there shall remain in- 
terest enough in the events of the trip to make it desirable. 

Soon four of our household leave their familiar places and wave 
their farewells from the platform at West Philadelphia, and in an- 
other hour we have crossed the Delaware, and are speeding home- 
ward through the well-known fields and cities of New Jersey. 
We gather up the time-tables and carefully count the miles 
we have traversed, and on faithful computation we find them 
3,623, and all without an accident of any kind, and with no unto- 
ward incident to mar the pleasure of the trip to every individual. 
And when but a few miles of this long round are left, a sense 
of gratitude for the thoughtful consideration with which the ex- 
cursion was planned, and for the kind care with which it has 
been carried out in its minutest detail, pervades the minds of all 
the party, but finds poor expression in the closing moments of our 
journey. 

But we must not close this record without grateful ac- 
knowledgement of the kind attentions of the oflScers of all the 
railroods over which we have passed. Not only have all possible 
facilities of rail and telegraph been furnished promptlj^ and 
gratuitously, but nothing that friendly courtesy could suggest 
to promote our personal comfort and social pleasure, was left 
undone. In the name of Mr. Dennis and his guests, we tender 
to them all warmest thanks. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 89 



Just thirty days ago our moving house, with its inmates 
rolled away from the point we are so near — from snow to sum- 
mer — from the Hudson to the St. Johns. Hour by hour it flashed 
behind it to tlie homes of the household, the tidings of its progress, 
— and forward, from station to station, the news of its approach. 

It traversed nine States and the District of Columbia. It 
passed through more than twenty cities, stopping as often and 
as long as its inmates desired.- It threaded its way throngli all 
the intricacies of the iron paths, whether wide or narrow, from 
New Jersey to Florida. At every point it found the oflficors of 
the railroads read}^ to welcome it and speed it on its way, and 
always a locomotive waiting to wheel it onward when the signal 
was given, and not before. And at one point far South, wlien 
it seemed to have reached a barrier, it found in Col. Screven, 
and Superintendant Rogers, not only the cordial gentlemen, 
read}^ to devote themselves to the social gratification of the 
household, but the generous magicians, able and willing to 
transport the house four hundred miles, in order that it 
might be open for occupation, across the barrier of a few 
cit}^ blocks, — and all this with no motive or reward but his 
own kindness, and the hearty thanks of tliose to most of 
whom he' was, up to that time, a stranger. And though running 
over 3,000 miles in thirty days, no bolt was started, no screw 
displaced, and each wheel came back sound and firm, tliougli it 
had revolved over three million times. And Charley stood 
faithful to his watch till the last turn was made. 



90 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



And within the walls was the same perfection. The comfort 
and harmony of the household were not once disturbed. No 
storm invaded it, no heat oppressed it. The kettle was always 
singing in tlie kitchen, and the ice was alwaj'S read}^ in the 
refrigerator. Tlie larder was never lean, and the wine closet 
never empty, and Ben stood always prepared to dispense his 
bounties to all who asked. The morning papers were always on 
the table, the messages from distant homes came dropping in 
day b}' day. The librarj^ was stocked with books, the lounges 
always invited a lazy occupant, and the piazza was always at 
hand for the dissolving views of natural scenery, the moonlight 
talk or song, or the quiet smoke. And day by day our kind 
host was always watchful, dropping in at unexpected moments 
with telegrams from home, foreseeing all contingencies, plan- 
ning for the occupations of the coming da}', and overanxious 
that it should be a day of new enjo3'ment. 

And Mrs. Dennis was ever kind and gentle, ever careful, of 
the comfort of the household, and daily enjoying in her quiet 
way the constantly renewed pleasure of her guests. 

For her this record is written at the request of all, as a me- 
morial of this delightful journey, and as some expression, how- 
ever inadequate, of their appreciation of the kindness which 
provided for them this memorable month upon the wheels from 
the Hudson to the St. Johns, 





m 



N ACCOUNT of the journey so fully described iu 
f'^/^^Q the previous pages, was published iu the Newark 
o£:::^^^>^ Daily Advertiser, by a correspondent, who was also 
a member of the Southern excursion party, from wliich the 
following extracts were made, leaving out many details, which 
would be but repetitions. 



-y\ CJoP^F^E^PONDENt'^ :yiEWg. 



PROM NEWARK TO FLORIDA. 



Jacksonville, Fla., March 20tli, 1874. 

The Southern excursion party which left Newark after the forbidding 
snow storm of February 26th, have just successfully completed an attrac- 
tive tour through Florida under the most auspicious circumstances, but 
not a shadow of regret darkens the joyous anticipations of exchanging 
this torrid atmosphere for the bracing breezes of the North. On arriving 
at Jacksonville, the temperature resembled our Jersey June, but further 
south it rose to mid-summer heat, in which we gasped for a breath of 
northern air. It was impossible to realize that you were at the same 
time shivering m the snows and penetrating winds of Winter, and long- 
ing for just what we were anxious to escape. Thus the discontent so 
common to poor humanity, prevails at both extremes of the country from 
opposite causes, and each envies the other's lot, just as they did in tlie 
early days of old Horace's satire. 

The details of travel to and through this sunny land have been so 
minutely set forth in the letters you have published from accomplished 
12 



tourists during several winters past, that they must be already trite to 
your readers, and I shall not undertake to embarrass you with repetitions 
of statistics which lumber the guide-books and gazetteers. But a few 
pencillings by the way, may interest those who are familiar with our 
party and the unusual advantages it enjoyed. It was one of those 
charming expeditions which the friends of Mr. A. L. Dennis, of the New 
Jersey Railroad, have been accustomed to enjoy at frequent intervals 
during some years past, and which may be considered the luxury of rail- 
way travelling. It was under his ever watchful care and well-planned 
management, demonstrating his remarkable executive ability, rare capac- 
ity for combining details, and a generous desire to minister to the comfort 
of his guests. Though recreation was the object of the latter, the rail- 
way' men were evidently inspecting routes with a view to railway connec- 
tions through the South. Your Mayor, Perry, slipped into the position 
of commissary, as naturally and genially as he falls into political ways at 
home, and if one who " knows how to keep a hotel " may be regarded as 
fit for all other trusts, he has fully established his trustworthiness by his 
energy and providence ; for the luxurious fare upon the car is far superior 
in quality, if not in variety, to anything we find at the best public houses 
on the route. Long may he wave ! The financial manager is Mr. C. S. 
Baylis, of Brooklyn, whose amiable qualities, and ever watchful guardian- 
ship over his responsible department and the comforts of the party at 
the stopping places, won the general confidence and respect of all. 

The palace-car is itself a perfect miniature hotel , combining all the 
comforts and sumptuous elegance of which railway architecture is capa- 
ble. In completeness of detail, economy in the use of space, and sub- 
stantial workmanship, it may be said to be one of the latest and complet- 
est results of the mechanic arts. It is divided into a parlor, a dining-room, 
two toilet rooms, a kitchen and a balcony at one end. It is warmed by a 
furnace. The kitchen is supplied with a refrigerator, cooking range, hot 



A COKRKSrONDENT's VIEWS. 95 



and cold water, &c. The dining room, which is also capable of instant 
conversion into sleeping apartments, is provided with an extension table, 
India crockery of the finest sort, and the choicest linen. There are also 
electric call-bells from every part, with an indicator in the kitchen, and 
the wheels are adjustible to any change in the width of tracks, so that 
the car can run on any railway on the continent. The completeness of 
this establishment renders the part}' entirely independent of the waj^side 
hotels whenever they are inconvenient, though it is part of the plan to 
stop at prominent places for rest at night and on Sundays. Mr. Charles 
W. Rowan, a most capable and attentive conductor, accompanies it, 
assisted by Benjamin Harris in tlie inside duties. "Ben" is a colored 
man with a rare genius for all work, and equally excellent in all. He is 
the maitre dP hotel and chef de cuisine combined, and is so accomplished 
and efficient in all domestic affairs that he has become tlie pet of the ladies 
and the "philosopher and friend" of the gentlemen. If he is not completely 
spoiled by their attentions he will be a shining example of human forti- 
tude. In this little palace, the favored company, started on their 
southward tour, stopping at Washington on the first night, and reaching 
Richmond, Va., in time to pass the following Sunday in visiting the 
churches and places of historic interest for which that ancient oitv is so 
famous. On Monday we resumed the journey, passing the night in the 
cars, and stopping at Charlotte, N. C, a vigorous young city, to adapt 
the wheels to the cliange in the tracks for the Southern roads. Here we 
found some enterprising Jerseymen who seem to be the animating spirits 
of the place. Prominent among them was Mr. Stephen Howell, formerly 
of Newark, who spoke affectionately of his old teacher there, the vener- 
able Mr. Hedges, wlio whipped into him those practical hints that have 
led him to affluence in the cotton business. 

The next night was comfortably passed at Columbia, the Capital of 
South Carolina, where several business men formerly from 3'our vicinity 



waited upon us and extended the warm hospitalitj^ of the place. The 
leading object of interest was the Legislature, in which a majorit\' of the 
seats are occupied by colored men, who are now making laws for their 
former masters. The opening prayer of the colored clerg3rman was au 
appeal to Divine favor, which for devout feeling, simphcitjr, and purity of 
language was al>ove the average performances of his white brethren. 
The colored members appeared modest, mtelligent, and ready in parlia- 
mentary tactics, while their moderation was in marked contrast to the 
rampant arrogance of the Southern chivalry who here nursed the reptile 
spirit of nullification and rebellion which humiliated their haughty pride 
by a fearful retribution. The venerable University, which seems almost 
deserted, the military barracks, which are still occupied by Federal 
troops, and the track of Sherman's march, were all visited with interest, 
and the party were whirled away at noon, through pine forests and 
swamps, 137 miles to Charleston. A day was pleasantly passed there in 
visiting Fort Sumter, and the elegant residence of Colonel Lathers, who 
Entertained us with a munificent hospitality, and many exchanges of 
friendly greeting. This ancient mart of prosperous commerce and wealth 
became the nest of pirates and blockade ruuners in the late war, and 
like the State itself, sits in apparent humiliation, if not despair. It looks 
sad and gloomy, but there are ambitious spirits there, who are contending 
earnestly with its more successful rival. Savannah, for the interior cotton 
trade and foreign exchanges. 

On the 6th we were off again for Augusta, stopping on the way at 
Aiken, the famous resort for northern invalids. It is a sparsely settled 
town, with several excellent hotels, the proprietors of which complain of 
a dull business, caused partly by the diversion of visitors to private board- 
ing houses It is very rural in its aspects, its chief merit being a pure, 
dry atmosphere, which did not, however, impress me as being superior 
to other places in the interior of that State. At Augusta we were im- 



pressed with evidences of a more active and enlarged spirit of enterprise, 
which indeed characterizes all the State of Georgia. Tlie wide, animated 
streets, and large, deep store-lionses filled with merchandise, were indi- 
cations of a business energy that savored more of the northern genius 
than anything we had seen since leaving Richmond. 

On Saturday, the 7th, we were off again toward the sea-shore, pass- 
ing through luxuriant pines and malarious swamps, with occasional cot- 
ton plantations, arriving at Savannah towards evening. Here we were 
indebted for many hospitalities to the Mayor, the Chief of Police and 
other representatives of the city, and especially to Col. Screven, President 
of the Grand Gulf Railroad. He was educated at Princeton, is a high- 
toned gentleman by birth, education and instinct, and won the affection- 
ate regards of our entire party. Through his courtesy we visited the 
cotton presses, Bueuaventure cemetery, and his own rice plantations, 
which are, just now, not in a very presentable condition. The city is the 
most attractive resort above Florida for Northern people. It has more 
apparent activity of business than any Southern port, and is charmingly 
built, with little parks on every block. 

The atmosphere is bland, with roses, japonicas, and jessamines bloom- 
ing in the open air. It is the point of departure, by steamers and rail- 
ways, for Florida, the Northern ports, and interior cities. Here Messrs. 
Taylor and Sloan parted with us in pursuance of their special railwa}' 
interests in the interior, and their places were taken by Judge and Mrs 
Schley, of Savannah. They added much to the pleasure, he by his intel- 
ligence and vivacious humor and she by those feminine graces that always 
soften our masculine asperities. 

The railway from Jacksonville affords a rather tedious ride of 268 
miles, occupying about seventeen hours of time. The country is a dead 
level, with sandy soil, frequent swamps covered by forests of pine, cypress 
and oaks, and a few small settlements built on the cheap "Western plan. 



98 A correspondknt's vikws. 



but unfit for stopping places. There are few objects of interest along 
the route, except the profusion of terrapins that were sunning themselves 
upon fallen trees along the brooks, and extensive fires were blazing 
among the underbrush of the forests, lighting up the dark wilderness as 
far as the eye could reach, with brilliant, yet weird-like eftect. 

It was two o'clock on the morning of the 11th when we found grate- 
ful rest at Jacksonville, and passed the following day there. A few of 
us called upon Governor Hart, whom we found suffering with a pulmon- 
ary disease, which resulted fatallj' a few days afterward. He told us 
that he passed the last summer in Newark and Morristown, in the hope of 
relief, but without success. His wife is from Newark, being a sister of 
Mr. C. Gr. Campbell. His death is a great calamit}^ to the State, and is 
already causing warm contentions among the officials. Jacksonville is 
their most important city. It has a growing trade, chiefly in cotton and 
lumber, and the hotels are overflowing with refugees from the rigors of 
the north. Their large and brilliant assemblies are enlivened by bands 
of music during the evening, reproducing the lively scenes at the nortli- 
ern Summer resorts, but the visitors are mostly people of more retirement 
and wealth than are seen at those more accessible places. 

The surroundings of Jacksonville are nob picturesque. The country is 
level, sandj' and unproductive, but there are a few orange trees in pri- 
vate gardens, and a few hard-coaxed flowers, but the air is charming, 
and it is the point of departure for tlie St. Johns river, which furnishes 
the chief attraction to tlie tourist. Having been beguiled into a rather 
more diffuse account of the trip than was intended, t must reserve the 
completion of the town for another letter. 



A correspondent's views. 99 



IMPRESSIONS OF THE SOUTH. — FLORIDA. 

In the rather long and necessarily superficial sketch of travel on the 
railway route to Florida, in Monday's Daily, there was no room for some 
practical observations, which I now propose to make. And first as to the 
country, which offers few attractions on the seaboard route south of Rich- 
mond. It is almost as level as a prairie, without its fertility, and is occa- 
sionally shaded by forest trees, but no fruits to speak of. The soil is for 
the most part sandy, resembling that in our Jersey sea-shore counties, 
with intervals of clay, neither being capable of cultivation without guano, 
super-phosphates, or other artificial fertilizers. The freight trains we saw 
were filled with tliem : at the stations they occupied more space than cot- 
ton or any any other produce, and the atmosphere was redolent of their 
noisome odors. The expense of this is a serious embarrassment to the 
farmers, who complain that the cost last year nearly ruined them. So it 
was fair to conclude that agriculture on such terms cannot be a profitable 
business there, but further inland, and especially in Georgia, it may be 

more so. 

The people we met were intelligent, cordial in their greetings, and sur- 
prisingly free from the unfriendly feeling toward the North which we had 
been led to expect. The more intelligent portion talked freely about their 
condition, and accepted the results of the war philosophically, and with- 
out a sign of resentment. Some of them indeed were frank enough to 
characterize the rebellion as a stupendous blunder of the South, and criti- 
cise rather sharply the political demagogues who led them into it. The 
blacks were not so stupid nor ignorant as they are represenied, and com- 
pare well with their brethren at the North. Hard experiences have dis- 
enchanted them of the idea that emancipation meant freedom from labor, 
and they are apparently a shnple-minded, well-meaning, law-respecting 



LofC. 



100 A CORKK.SI'ONDK.NT's VIKWf 



class, who, if they make political mistakes, do so through the misguidance 
of those who are unworthy of their confidence. They retain the heredi- 
tary lethargy of their race, former customs and climate, whicli is the 
chief drawback to then- efficiency. I am speaking now of the rural dis- 
tricts, and not of the class of servants in cities or hotels. The average 
wages for farm hands is about twelve dollars per month and found — that 
is, a peck of meal and three pounds of meat per week ! This would be 
a sorry allowance for a Northern laborer. In private houses and hotels, 
the male servants get about ten dollars per mouth, and the females half as 
much. Most of them are unfitted for service in Nortliorn families, whose 
habits of life are entirely foreign to theirs. 

My last sketch of travel brought us to Jacksonville, the inviting thresh- 
old and portal of Florida, and the commercial metropolis of the State 
Its docks present the aspects of substantial business. The main street 
is lined with stores, tiie most attractive of wliich are for the sale of curi 
osities peculiar to the State, such as feather-work, alligators' teeth carved 
into whistles and charms, Florida beans set in all manner of jewelry for 
ladies' use, oranges, and domestic supplies. The country is for the most 
part a level, nncidtivated wilderness, abounding in sand, pine forests, 
water courses, lu.xuriaiii swamps, and a usually delightful climate; but 
during the past Winter the temperature has l)een rather treacherous, the 
thermometer running to wide e.vtromes between the day and night. For 
invalids, it is dillicult to say what class is most benefitted there, and only 
personal experience can determine. The adage that what is one man's 
meat is another's poison, is as applicable to air as it is to diet. 

To the victims of feeble digestion, torpid livers, and intermittent ten- 
dencies, the warmtii of Florida seems to be debilitating, and the cold in- 
vigorating air of Minnesota, or the high regions of the western territories 
to give more freshness and force ; but every individual case is a law unto 
itself, and no newspaper scribblercan undertake to advise. It is safe to 



A correspondent's views. 10] 



say. however, that any change of ^cene, and the pleasant excitement it 
involves, will improve, if not restore, ordinarily impaired health, and also 
prolong a life, even of one afflicted with organic disease, and any change 
from the deadly caprice of our March winds is a relief to all. For pulmon- 
ary complaints, wliile the temperate climate may relieve, it cannot offer a 
specific remedy. It is plausively, and perhaps truh", said that most 
patients who go there are too far advanced to recover. While this may 
readily be admitted, 1 am disposed to think that as much of it originates 
there as elsewhere, relative to the per centage of population and other 
maladies. The late Governor Hart, who recently died, is a case in point. 
He went North last Summer with the same hope that persons there with 
similar afflictions, fly to the South, and though his e.xperience favored his 
own sunny home, it failed to save his life. It may, however, have greatly 
prolonged it. and while I state the case I do not propose to discourage 
the hope of any afflicted one, but simply to suggest a huit that may lead 
to wiser discrunination of cases by patients and their medical advisers in 
contemplating a change of residence. 

As to products of the soil, there are very few in Florida. Though to 
the poetic fancy every prospect pleases. I cannot saj^ with Bishop Helier's 
hymn, that only man is vile. Tliere are manj^ intelligent, industrious 
toilers, who are striving for agricultural improvement, b\it they have not 
yet successfully demonstrated the capaciiy of the land. You look in vain 
for cultivated fields along the river fronts, but further inland, beyond the 
malarious vapors, there are said to be orange groves which yield profitable 
i-cturus, but they do not grow spontaneously. The native tree produces a 
som-, acrid fruit, and requires the same application of science in the way 
of budding, grafting. &c., as the apple, pear or plum, at the North : but 
after such treatment, the fruit is more luscious than any we import, and 
it is at the same time costlier — the prices at tliis time averaging about $3 
per hundred at the groves, with insufficient supplies. Sweet potatoes are 
13 



niiiisnally rich and imtrilioiis, l)tit llie (tuantity scarcely answers the home 
deiiiaiid. Tliere is no grass for cattle. The poor, pitifnl. starved looking 
creatures seem too feeble to wag their tails, and hay and feed for them, 
with domestic supplies of almost every kind, are imported from the Xorth. 
Kven the milk comes, in a condensed form, from Nortiiern dairies. I 
noticed that tiie Steamboat in which we ascended tlie St. Johns Kiver, 
was freighted with supplies for settlers on its upward passage, but brought 
no sUi'ples nor freight of any kind on its return, showing that tliere were 
no exportable prod\icts to balance tlie imports. It was a fair interonce, 
therefore, tliat tlic linancial life of Florida is dependent upon the money 
derived from ilu- multitude of Northern visitors, who furnish its most 
importiint crop. JMilrrprisiiig men o[ wealth, however, arc now enlisting 
in hopeful efforts to improve and develop the possibilities of the country, 
and may in the slow progress of events produce a change in all its aspects 
The St. Johns river is the great artery of the State, through which its 
tinted waters How. and along which its chief attractions cluster. As far 
up as Pilalka.. seventy-live miles above .Tacksonville. the river is of im- 
mense breadth, with beautiful green slopes and sharp cut margins on 
which the cozy retreats of Northern settlers nestle among orange groves, 
magnolias, and sturdy live oaks, profusely covered l»y mosses, which give 
thein a gracefully weeping eflect. Above Pilatka the river instantly 
shrinks to narrower proi)ortions, with short windings, more tioi)ical scenes, 
and pleasant surprises at every turn. The banks are thickly covered with 
rank luxuriance; palmettos, cypresses, oaks and jessamines, interlaced by 
mosses, overhang the water, and occasionally a stjirtled alligator slides 
from liis muddy bed and splashes into the recesses of the stream below 
just iu lime to escape the volley of bullets which amateur marksmen 
heartlessly tire upon him from the deck of the boat, altogether present- 
ing a scene of almost Kastern enchantment. The atreim widens out a 
few miles up, forming Lake (Jeorge, a siiallow inland sea, sixteen miles 



A cokkesi'Ondknt's views. 103 



in length, and again after passing Volusia forms another called Lake 
Monroe, upon which are three small settlements — Sanfords, Mellonville 
and Enterprise. The former is ;i laud speculation of Mr. Sanford, our 
former Secretary of Legation to Paris, and the recent candidate for 
Ignited States Senator. It is to be hoped that better success will crown 
his later venture than it did his political aspiration. Enterprise is the 
ultima thule of steamboat wanderers, but there are still wilder regions 
beyond to tempt the daring seeker for fresh excitement and pastures new. 

On their return down the St. Johns river tlie parly took leave of tlie 
steamboat Starlight at Tocoi, and after a few hours' delay in the torrid 
heat, took the horse cars upon a rude wooden railway for St. Augustine, 
fifteen miU^s distant, where we arrived after three hour's travel. 

St. Augustine was overflowing with strangers who have been enjoying 
a delicious atmosphere, tempered by the sea breezes during the Winter. 
TJie hotels and boarding houses were so full that newly arrived visitors 
are lodged all about the citv in houses, some of which are old and dilap- 
idated relics of the original Spanish .settlers. This was the First perma- 
nent settlement on the Continent, and retains the character wiiich its 
foreign founders gave it. It is not directly on the ocean, as I had sup- 
posed, but is separated from it by a strip of sand, with int^'vening water, 
and it i.s accessible to vessels througli an inlet. While contemplating its 
quaint old houses with balconies, separated by narrow, crooked streets. 
and all tlie aspects of a Continental town, one can scarcely realize that 
he is in an .-Imerican city. The most impressive object is the Fort of St. 
Marco, wliich is in good preservation, though upwards of three centuries 
old. It Inis the moat, draw-bridge, keeps, ramparts, magazines, and 
dungeons, wliicli we read of in medifeval stories, and vividly recalls 
tlie tales of cliivalry and i-omance they inspired. The Catliolic 
Cathedral is another object of serious contemplation. Simple, 
sombre, soleinn, and substantial, l)ut liy no means grand, it seems like a 
reproduction of one of tlie old Spanish churches, wliei;e generations of 
devoted worshippers have prayed for, and perhaps found eternal peace. 

This reverend little city is in some respects the most inviting resort for 
Nortiiern visitors, becau.se of its antiquity, its climate, its fine exposure, 
and attractive suburbs. It is growing in favor among people of retine- 
ment, who are already securing permanent libraes. It is called the New- 



104 A CORRESPONDENTS VIEWS. 



port of tlie South, and is rapidly improving. Tlie chief objection of fami- 
lies accustomed to Nortliern luxuries, is the difficulty of procuring meats 
and otlier supplies which the country itself does not produce. I might 
say much more of the quaint attractions of the place, its history, the 
romance of its fort, its fragrant orange groves, and delicious atmosphere, 
all of which now seem like a fairy dream, to which a prosy letter can do 
no justice. 

On tlie 20th we started ou our homeward course, via Albany, where we 
passed that night. The hospitalities of this rural village were touchingly 
tendered, and here we parted with Col. Screven, the nolile-hearted Presi- 
dent of the .A tlantic and Gulf Railroad, and his polite Superintendent, Mr. 
Haine-s, with mutual expressions of sorrow and lasting attachment. 

A few hours travel brought us to Andersonville, the revolting scene of 
prison terrors, the tragic story of which shocks humanity and forms the 
darkest spot in the Confederate annals. Here rest all that is mortal of 
15,000 Union soldiers beneath the soil they trod in humiliation and sor- 
row, but not disgrace. 

The same evening brought us to Macon and a restful Sabbath. This is 
one of the few cities that were untouched by the desobition of war, audits 
evidences of a^'tive business, public spirit and relined taste, eoutirmed our 
former impressions of the Georgia people, who alone of all the South 
seem to be animated by the Northern genius and enterprise. Here lives 
Mr. Wadley. the President of the Central Railway, a noble scion from thp 
old American stock, and Col. Johnston, of the Air-line road, to both of 
whom we are indebted for grateful attentions. The latter lias a magniH- 
cent residence, surrounded with tasteful horticultural attractions, and con- 
taining a picture gallery stocked with choice gems of foreign art. 

-After two more nights' rest, at Ciiarlotto and Raleigh, we took the 
Weldon route. Friday night brought us to Baltimore, and after parting 
reluctantly at Philadelphia with another detachment of our now dimin- 
ishing party — the family of Mr. Bacon, of the Pennsylvania road — we 
alighted on Saturday afternoon at Newark, after a journey of 3,300 miles 
in space and thirty days iu time — precious hours of unalloyed pleasure 
and profit ; of fast friendships, which separation may modify but not de- 
stroy, of countless experiences which memory will long cherish among 
the choicest reminiscences of departed joys. 



^ 



